OFT taking stock of UK infrastructure in private sector hands

The OFT will look at who owns the assets, which also includes water networks and car parks, and how their ownership could affect competition and consumers.

About 150 billion has been invested in the economic infrastructure in the past five years, according to the watchdog, while a further 500bn of investment may be required in the next decade.

Different forms of ownership – such as private equity, statutory corporations, infrastructure investment funds and limited companies – will be examined, along with who ultimately controls which assets.

The OFT said the stock take may lead to further work if specific competition or consumer issues are identified in any of the sectors. An OFT spokesman said an internal team of four staff would be working on the study, which is expected to last about six months.

The work is expected to cost about 100,000 and no plans have been laid to use external consultants.

News of the stock take received a mixed reception amongst commentators. Arbuthnot analyst Gerald Khoo said: "I think this type of fact-finding initiative is a good idea and is probably aimed at finding out more about the convoluted ownership structures of infrastructure funds."

But David Lee, a specialist lawyer at Allen & Overy, added: "There has been some noise recently about who owns British economic infrastructure.

"Still, the ownership of a car does not affect how fast that car goes. It is the same for infrastructure and I would be amazed if the OFT found differently."

Heather Clayton, a senior director of OFT's infrastructure group, said:

"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 step back and assess how these developments might have affected competition and consumers."