ABSTRACT
Labour approached the peace, of course, with a long-standing commitment to a range of social reforms. Moreover, a crippling lack of recent investment meant that even relatively untouched facilities often seemed dilapidated and wholly unsuited to efficient production, as Cripps reported in early 1945. Nationalisation remained deeply objectionable on ideological grounds, but its major fault was that it encouraged inefficiency. In practical terms, therefore, the central focus of state-industry relations was to be around a new ‘Ministry of Industry and Commerce’, an institution ‘inspired by a more positive and constructive conception of its duty to help British industry to grow healthily, make good any weaknesses, sell its goods, and provide employment’. In addition, state agencies might play a part in promoting scientific research and technical education; developing and enforcing a location policy; and policing monopoly abuse (though this was not seen as a major threat).
