ABSTRACT

By the spring of 1983 the privatisation programme was growing in momentum. In 1979/80 and 1980/1 asset sales had been less than the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s targets. However, in 1981/2 the sum raised came in at close to target, at £494 million,1 and in 1982/3 the figure was almost the same, £488 million. In 1983/4 the amount raised from disposals would jump to £1,161 million (Table 7.1).2 Also, shares in a number of major corporations had been sold, namely BP, British Aerospace (BAe), Cable and Wireless (C&W), Amersham International, the National Freight Corporation (NFC), Britoil and the British Transport Docks Board/Associated British Ports (ABP), and planning was underway for the sale of British Telecom. There had also been the sale of some smaller enterprises, notably Amersham International, that went on to thrive in the private sector, and businesses such as Drake and Skull Holdings and Suez Finance. At the October 1982 Party Conference in Brighton, the PM could claim, with some justification, “already we have done more to roll back the frontiers of socialism than any previous Conservative Government.”3