ABSTRACT
The Nationalization Act received the Royal Assent on July 12, 1946, and it remained for the Minister of Fuel and Power to fix the date on which the coal industry was to be transferred to public ownership. The decision was a difficult one. Government supporters looked for early fulfilment of one of the main features of the election programme, without fully appreciating the scale of the administrative problem which it involved. The mineworkers could not be expected, in the twilight of private control which they had long condemned, to give the new response which the industry so urgently needed. The colliery owners had little inducement to devote capital or energy to an enterprise which would no longer be profitable to them. These psychological factors had to be weighed against the administrative problem of bringing into being an organization capable of taking over the burden of the coal industry without collapsing under the strain. The Minister, after consulting the newly established Board, decided that it was better not to delay the change. Accordingly on November 18, 1946, he informed the House of Commons that he had decided that the primary vesting date should be six weeks later, on January 1, 1947.
