Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Nationalised Industries – 13 June 1988

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Nationalised Industries on 13th June 1988.

Mr. Gordon Brown To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the percentage increase in fares, prices and tariffs required for the British Railways Board, Electricity England and Wales, London Regional Transport, North of Scotland Hydro-Electricity board, Post Office, South of Scotland Electricity Board and Water England and Wales to meet the expenditure on fixed assets given for 1990–91 in table 4.4 of Cm. 288-I, assuming these industries financed all this investment internally from commercially generated funds.

Mr. Major [holding answer 10 June 1988] Hypothetical projections on the lines requested would not justify the costs involved in preparing them. Assumptions would need to be made concerning general market conditions, the responsiveness of revenues to price changes and a wide range of factors affecting cost performance such as wage settlements, fuel costs and productivity growth. For reasons of commercial confidentiality, the Government do not publish estimates of internal resources for the later years covered by the public expenditure plans, the assumptions on which they are based, or the effects of varying those assumptions.