Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
6
The Conservatives after 1979
'Rolling back the state'
6.1 Introduction: the return of ideology
During the 18 years of Conservative rule from 1979 to 1997 the role of the State in
relation to the ownership of Britain's transport industries and the provision of public
transport services was transformed. The motivation for this had very little to do with
transport itself; rather it was but one aspect of a much larger political agenda. The
ideological enthusiasm which drove through the reforms was similar in kind (but
opposite in direction) to the programme of the post-1945 Labour Government in
establishing the Welfare State.
Between 1952 and 1979 there had been a large measure of consensus between the
two main political parties on transport as on other sectors of government (Starkie
1982). Apart from skirmishes over the road haulage industry there had been notable
continuity between one administration and the next regardless of political colour. The
development of the inter-urban roads programme, the establishment of arrangements
for integrated urban land use/transport planning and the gradual relaxation of controls
to permit competition between the main transport industries all proceeded without
dissent on matters of principle.
The conditions for radical political change were created by the economic upheavals
of the mid-1970s. The Labour Governments of 1974-79 struggled to implement the
financial strictures on public expenditure which the changed conditions required
because they were contrary to the ethos on which the party's ideology was founded.
This was that efficient and equitable development of the utilities and other socially
important industries depended fundamentally on planned action (and expenditure)
by the State.
This view was contradicted by advocates of liberalism in a new and 'extreme' form
(Dunleavy and O'Leary 1987) . They believed it was over-involvement by the State
itself which was inhibiting progress. Monopoly ownership and/or State regulation
meant that industries were being managed in ways which served the interests of
bureaucrats and employees rather than consumers. The level of taxation necessary to
fund State activities was crippling the rest of the economy and fuelling inflation. The
answer was to scrap regulatory controls and to open up industries to the rigours of the
free market. State-owned monopolies needed to be broken up and either sold or, if that
was not possible, restructured to operate as commercial businesses.
In this chapter we look first at the tentative steps taken in the initial years of the
Thatcher administration and the series of privatisations which followed (6.2). We
then look at three particularly radical changes - the assault on local government,
 
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