The Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain was a

nationalised industry State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownershi ...

, set up in 1949 by

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

government. The Iron & Steel Act 1949 took effect on 15 February 1951, the Corporation becoming the sole shareholder of 80 of the principal iron and steel companies (reduced from the 107 proposed in the first draft of the Bill). The model differed from previous nationalisations in that it was the share capital of the companies that was acquired, not their undertakings. The reason was that companies in the iron & steel industry had wide-ranging ancillary activities, from which the core business of iron & steel making could not easily be extracted. Firms whose chief activity consisted in the manufacture of motor vehicles were specifically excluded from the scheme. Companies not qualifying for acquisition were to require a licence if producing more than 5,000 tons of ore or other products. Some 2,000 iron & steel companies remained in business outside the nationalised sector. Nationalisation of steel production was strongly resisted by the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

opposition. On returning to power, they instructed the Corporation to make no change to the structure of the industry and made plans instead for its return to the private sector. The Corporation was superseded by the Iron and Steel Holding and Realisation Agency. The Agency succeeded in selling all of the nationalised companies with the exception of the largest,

Richard Thomas and Baldwins Richard Thomas and Baldwins Ltd (RTB) was a major iron, steel and tinplate producer, primarily based in Wales and formed in 1948 by the merger of Richard Thomas & Co Ltd with Baldwins Ltd. It was absorbed into British Steel Corporation in 1967. The ...

. This remained in public ownership and was absorbed into the

British Steel Corporation British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

when the industry was re-nationalised by the Labour government of

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...

in 1967.

Sources

* Whitaker's Almanack (various dates)

External links

''Time'' article on denationalisation
Defunct companies of the United Kingdom Steel companies of the United Kingdom Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom 1967 disestablishments in the United Kingdom 1949 establishments in the United Kingdom Metallurgical industry of the United Kingdom {{UK-gov-stub