John Hurdley, Partner at Bircham Dyson Bell LLP believes that the UK's regulatory regimes which regulate utilities and other infrastructure providers, allow the Chancellor, George Osbourne to confidently call for more Asian investment in the UK.
"The Chancellor's call for more Asian investment in UK infrastructure is a pragmatic and well-timed solution to a growing problem - the shortage of both public and private funds in the UK to provide the new infrastructure that the UK so badly needs to aid future growth," explains John.
"Foreign ownership of utilities in the UK is already very well established, particularly in the water industry - and the companies are protected from exploitation by the regulatory regimes such as OFWAT, the water regulator, which vets all owners of water companies and maintains strict safeguards to ensure that the companies have and retain the resources they need to perform their functions."
"From the foreign investors' point of view, UK infrastructure is an excellent investment - safe and solid with reliable long-term returns - which investors have no wish to put at risk. Accordingly, we can rest assured that any attempt at unwelcome exploitation is very unlikely and very difficult under regulatory control."
"The UK has a huge need to improve its infrastructure - and as we simply do not have sufficient funds to do it all ourselves, we must look to overseas sources both of a public nature such as Sovereign Wealth Funds and from the private sector such as Pension Funds, to get the improvements funded and under way. China is an excellent new source of wealth for such projects and I fully endorse what the Chancellor is trying to achieve."
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