ABSTRACT
The privatization of the electricity supply industry should not be seen as an isolated act of government policy. I t was the culmination of a concerted policy by the Thatcher Governments over a period of about a decade to reduce the overall level of public ownership and to move decision-making for the productive sector of the economy from public to private hands.' This chapter traces the development of the privatization programme and examines the process of privatization of the electricity supply industry, including the reasons for the structure and the mechanisms chosen.
