The Steel White Paper of 1973

Abstract

In 1960 Professor William Robson, the leading specialist on the study of nationalized industry and public ownership, wrote: `The real character of the relationship between Ministers and public corporations is only gradually becoming known to the public' (Robson, 1962: 142). It seems that advances in knowledge of this subject have been no more than modest in the past 50 years. This article is an idiographic study (Riggs, 1962; Chapman, 1966) intended to contribute to that advance. It is a study, in as much depth as possible, of the gestation of the 1973 White Paper on the Steel Industry and of the implementation of its main proposals. It contributes not only to an understanding of the British Steel Corporation but also to the history of a particularly significant development in policy-making and administration in the 1970s and later. The main sources for the study have been: government files in the Public Record Office (PRO) at the National Archives; published commentaries and analysis, both contemporary with the White Paper and later.