Economies of settlement size in rural settlement planning

"Key settlement' or concentration policies are still important elements of rural settlement planning, although their role may have been reduced in the last 20 yr. A central issue underlying such policies is the relationship between settlement size and the cost of providing services. Although other quantitative studies have been undertaken, they have failed to resolve this issue. This paper provides an outline to the "economies of settlement size' justification for such policies and gives a quantitative analysis of the costs of providing local authority services in relation to settlement patterns, for England and Wales. Particular emphasis is given to the variations in costs of servicing rural settlements. -Authors