ABSTRACT
The British Steel Corporation (BSC) had been slated for privatisation since the early 1980s, but its sale was held up by economic conditions in the European steel industry. BSC was established under the Iron and Steel Act 1967, later repealed and replaced by the Iron and Steel Act 1975. Part of the steel industry was briefly in the state sector in the early 1950s, but the 1951 Conservative Government reversed the Attlee Government’s nationalisation plans. The nationalisation in 1967 brought the assets of 14 of the country’s bulk steel making companies with numerous subsidiaries under public ownership, although around 100 smaller and specialised steel product producers were left in the private sector.
