Now that privatisation of utilities is substantially complete, regulation has become a major economic and political issue. To provide an intellectual basis for utility regulation, each year the Institute in conjunction with the London Business School publishes a set of Readings which assess the state of regulation, considers the state of regulation, considers what problems have arisen, and discusses how they might be solved, taking into account the experiences of other countries. The authors adopt no common political or ideological stance: they bring a variety of viewpoints to bear since the intentions is to stimulate debate. The 1996 edition of this comprehensive and up-to-date review of utility regulation in Britain includes contributions not only from academic commentators but from the utility regulators and the heads of the general competition authorities.