PPPs potentially transfer control of assets to the private sector, limiting the ability of the public sector to provide community service obligations for the duration of the PPP arrangement. Government entities will need to ensure community service obligations are explicitly noted in PPP contract arrangements to ensure that community service obligations are met.
The loss of control over assets to the provider is a considerable concern if the sponsoring agency wishes to develop competing infrastructure in the future and may be prohibited from doing so due to non-competition clauses in the concession contract agreements to reduce the risk of traffic diversion from the tolled facility. A number of instances have been cited in Australia where the public sector has been suspected of not being able to improve competing alternate toll-free routes and public transit route to ensure that they comply with "non-compete" clauses within various toll road PPP agreements. In 2006 one concessionaire convinced the local government to close several competing local roads to through traffic to force drivers to use the tolled facilities, which were lagging traffic and revenue expectations.