Insurance tycoon Simon Burgess is auctioning off the shortest, and one of the most expensive, web addresses in the world for $18m (£10m).

The auction of the address - x.uk - comes as the UK no longer has to use ‘co.uk’ and can instead use ‘.uk’.

If Briton Burgess succeeds is getting his desired offer for the web address it will be the most expensive one in the UK, and one of ten most expensive web addresses in the world. The most expensive web address is insurance.com, which sold for $38m (£21.2m) in 2010.

Burgess, who set up a business as a broker in payment protection, told The Telegraph that x.uk is “uniquely valuable”. He has already turned down an offer of $9m (£5m).

According to the Daily Mail, as Burgess owned x.co.uk, he had the option of acquiring x.uk too.