OFT announces stock-take of infrastructure ownership and control

49/10 14 May 2010

The OFT has today announced a stock-take of ownership and control across economic infrastructure in the UK.

The key aims of the work are to:

Map ownership and control across the economic infrastructure sectors such as ports, airports, energy and water networks, and car parks.
Assess how ownership of infrastructure affects outcomes for consumers in these markets.

This work will include examining the different forms of ownership such as private equity ownership, statutory corporations, infrastructure investment funds and limited companies. Alongside this the OFT will be looking at who controls which assets.

The stock-take is intended to improve public understanding of competition issues in UK infrastructure markets. It may also lead to further work by the OFT if specific competition or consumer issues are identified in any of the sectors.

Heather Clayton, Senior Director of OFT's Infrastructure Group said:

'Effective infrastructure is crucial to the performance and productivity of the UK economy, and the quality of life of UK consumers. There have been significant changes in ownership of infrastructure assets in both regulated and unregulated sectors of the economy over the past decade. We want to take this opportunity to step back and assess how these developments might have affected competition and consumers.'

The stock-take is expected to be completed in autumn 2010. Interested parties can make submissions to OFT Infrastructure Ownership and Control Stock-take, Fleetbank House, 2-6 Salisbury Square, London EC4 8JX or email: InfrastructureOwnership@oft.gsi.gov.uk.

NOTES

For more information about the stock-take go to:
www.oft.gov.uk/OFTwork/markets-work/infrastructure-ownership/
The OFT is proposing to focus the work on economic infrastructure, such as assets in the communications, energy, transport and water sectors and to exclude schools and hospitals.
The work is being carried out using the OFT's power under Section 5 of the Enterprise Act 2002.

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