Privatisation

Abstract

The Churchill Government was pledged to ‘simplify the administrative machine’, to repeal the Iron and Steel Act and to give private hauliers the chance to return to business.¹ As we have seen, one of the first decisions of the new Cabinet was to prevent the Iron and Steel Corporation, as set up by the Attlee Government, from reorganising the companies which had only been nationalised that year.² At first the Cabinet had considered the possibility of denationalising iron and steel before Christmas, and had appointed a Committee under Crookshank to look into this.³ Crookshank quickly discovered that this was impracticable, but said that a directive could be given to the Board of the Corporation to ‘refrain from any action which might prejudice the position further’.⁴ The form of the directive to this effect, to be issued by the Minister of Supply, was approved by the Cabinet on 12 November, and thereupon announced in the House of Commons.⁵