What, no septic tank issues Dave..???
Sorry could not resist it, though living just a field away from the edge of suburbia and under the arms of a very large national grid HV Tower, it was ever a tad frustrating to be without electricity due to our once old and fragile distribution network while viewing all the lights on in the housing estate down the hill... Over 30 years ago I paid out circa £3k to have a mains gas pipe laid along out local single track road in order stop the need for coal storage and deliveries burning coal and for the convenience of programming heating, Two gas boilers, which do not operate without electricity thus one open gas fire, electric cooking with camping gas cooker as standby, the usual torches, camping light and candles.
During one lengthy power outage the supply authority guys connected a temporary generator to serve out small community, unfortunately they wired it up incorrectly and connected our normal single phase supply across two phases... fortunately, I go round switching all the kit that might be sensitive to surge and just use a table lamp to indicate when a stable supply becomes available once more, but the electricity meter suffered somewhat requiring replacement..
Fortunately an old folks home was built further up the hill and as such they upgraded the electricity supply, thus the hope is for fewer power outages..
Have spent quite a bit of time effort and money self build extending and insulating the place, the latter definitely paid immediate and long lasting dividends. I am ideally located for solar, though the cost benefit analysis does not work given my age, which is a pity as I do like the idea behind it all, though some of the Tesla technology seems to have room for improvement..
Road maintenance... been there done that, the road serving our eight home community is single track and private, with two recent businesses set up, a dog exercise area and glamping, and in road maintenance terms, everyone does their bit...NOT...Shrug, Road maintenance was mostly a solo effort over many decades... by guess who...? (-:
Septic tank..? Yeah well it seems there may well be issues for all those homes in the UK that have a septic tank not compliant with a recent regulation re-write. Sorry if I have added to your list of complexities relative to countryside living Dave.
None of the above is in any way a complaint, as for me it is ALL worth it, compared to living cheek by jowl and the possible downsides of that way of life...I was brought up in a city tenement...
If the profits of doom are to be believed it seems city dwellers may have to learn some degree of self reliance in time too, regardless of which political party might be in power.... ?
