Chapter 29

 (privatisation in Britain)  The transfer of resources form the public to the private sector  UK examples; British Airways, Rolls-Royce, British Rail, British Airport Authority ed_Kingdom  The largest privatization in history involved Japan Post. It was the nation's largest employer and one third of all Japanese government employees worked for Japan Post. Japan Post was often said to be the largest holder of personal savings in the world.

 sale of nationalised industries, e.g. British Rail, British Airways  deregulation; lifting legal restrictions on private competition, e.g. telecommunications market was once dominated by British Telecom  contracting out, e.g. school lunches, hospital cleaning  sale of land & property; tenants of council properties given right to purchase

Brainstorm  generate income  nationalised industries often inefficient  deregulation  barriers to entry   political interference So do you think privatisation is always a good thing? * try Q1 P130/1

1. Consumers; a lot of prices have fallen, e.g. telephone services, gas & electricity, but others such as rail travel have increased a lot. Service, quality and choice have generally improved not always. Some services have been cut due to poor profitability while in some cases quality & safety have suffered Mghttp:// Mg The Potters Bar Railway Crash

2. Workers; many privatised businesses reduced staff, e.g. British Energy  its workers by 25% 3. Firms;  profit became an objective  investment   mergers & takeovers common

4. Government;   revenue (£90 billion b/w UK)  can focus on other important areas 5. The economy It is difficult to evaluate the effects. Efficiency in the economy in some cases have improved, e.g. telecommunications, but in others have not. *try Q2 & exam practice P132/3