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PRIVATIZATION OF THE UK'S PUBLIC UTILITIES: THE BIRTH OF THE POLICY 1979–1984
Author(s) -
PARKER David
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
annals of public and cooperative economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.526
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-8292
pISSN - 1370-4788
DOI - 10.1111/apce.12063
Subject(s) - cabinet (room) , political science , politics , government (linguistics) , public administration , public policy , economic policy , business , engineering , linguistics , philosophy , law , mechanical engineering
The Conservative governments of the 1980s and 1990s privatized large numbers of state industries. Yet the privatization of the public utilities was not on the political agenda at the time of the May 1979 General Election or during the early months of the first Thatcher government. Privatization of the public utilities was considered both economically unattractive and beyond practical politics. This study details how and why the sale of the public utilities became government policy by the mid‐1980s. In explaining the change two particular developments are singled out. The first involved a commissioned study by the Central Policy Review Staff of the Cabinet Office on whether monopolies could be privatized and the public interest protected. The second was the financing needs of BT at a time of strict controls on public borrowing.