ABSTRACT
Privatization has been a consistent element in the Conservative government’s policy since 1979, but it was only with the privatization of British Telecom in 1984 that it assumed the political importance it now has. Up to the election of 1987, over £15 billion had been raised by the Treasury by the sale of publicly owned assets. This transfer of ownership is the essential feature of ‘privatization’ in the UK, and distinguishes it from other ways of transferring activity to the private sector, such as requiring nationalized industries to put out certain of their operations to private tender.
