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Medium-Term Planning in UK Nationalised Industries: An Enquiry
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 March 2020
Abstract
There is now, of course, no official medium-term National Plan. The Government in recent years has published very little about possible medium-term developments. In the Public Expenditure White Paper, from December 1972 up to February 1976, there was a single table outlining the possible evolution of the economy over the four-year period which the public expenditure forward estimates cover. In the last two public expenditure white papers, even this single table has been dropped. In the latest paper there is the highly tentative suggestion that gross domestic product might rise at 3½ per cent a year up to 1979-80—but nothing is said about the macro-economic assumptions for later years. There is now no table showing the distribution of resources which might accompany this growth-rate—merely a text reference which says that ‘a rise in the proportion of national income devoted to industrial investment is essential…’
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- Copyright © 1978 National Institute of Economic and Social Research
Footnotes
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I am grateful to British Airways, British Gas, British Rail, British Steel Corporation, Central Electricity Generating Board, National Bus Company, National Coal Board and the Post Office for co-operating with this enquiry.
References
(1) In August 1976 the government put two medium-term scenarios before the National Economic Development Council; these were released to the press.
(2) Public Expenditure to 1976-77, Cmnd 5178, December 1972.
(3) Public Expenditure to 1979-80, Cmnd 6393, February 1976.
(4) The Government's Expenditure Plans, Cmnd 6721, January 1977. The Government's Expenditure Plans 1978/ 79 to 1981/82, Cmnd 7049, January 1978.
(5) In a less formal way, NBC looks further ahead than five years, when considering the recruitment and training of skilled staff, including management.
(1) BR begin their planning round with a number of scenarios based, for example, on different rates of productivity growth in BR. BSC also begin with two or three scenarios.
(1) The assumptions listed in table 2 are those mentioned by the respondents; they may not in all cases be an exhaustive list.
(2) A. J. H. Dean, ‘North Sea oil and the growth rate’ National Institute Economic Review, February 1978, pages 22-23.
(3) ‘New projections of the future labour force’, Department of Employment Gazette, June 1977.
(1) Economic Policy Review, March 1978, no. 4, University of Cambridge, Department of Applied Economics.
(2) To illustrate the importance of nationalised industries in relation to the economy, public corporations (excluding BSC, Water and Ports Authorities), in 1975, accounted for 10 per cent of net output, 7 per cent of employment and 15 per cent of fixed investment (See National Economic Develop ment Council, ‘A study of UK nationalised industries’, Background paper 3: Output, investment and productivity, 1976.)