Regulation of privatised public utilities in the UK: performance and governance
International Journal of Public Sector Management
ISSN: 0951-3558
Article publication date: 1 June 1999
Abstract
In many countries state ownership of public utilities is being abandoned in favour of private ownership with state regulation. To prevent monopoly abuse, regulatory structures are being created for the telecommunications, gas, electricity and water and sewerage sectors. From 1984 the UK privatised its major utilities and introduced a form of regulation that is proving to be a model for other countries. This paper looks at the performance of UK privatised utilities and the role of regulation in improving performance. It also considers the important subject of regulatory governance. The paper concludes that regulatory governance depends on the institutional context of regulation and that one country’s regulatory system cannot be successfully transferred to another country with a very different set of institutional constraints without appropriate adaptation.
Keywords
Citation
Parker, D. (1999), "Regulation of privatised public utilities in the UK: performance and governance", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 213-236. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513559910267387
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited