§ 4. Mr. Harry BarnesTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the total sum raised from the privatisation programme from 1979 to date; and to what these revenues have been applied.
§ The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Norman Lamont)The net proceeds from privatisation since May 1979 amount to some £23½ billion.
§ Mr. BarnesHave not the revenues been used to stoke up a consumer-led import drive, which is helping to ruin the British economy, and have not consumers' assets been wasted in these nonsensical sales?
§ Mr. LamontThe answer to the first point is no and the answer to the second point is, equally, no. The result of privatisation has been that businesses amounting to about 45 per cent. of the public sector in 1979 are operating more efficiently and profitably than ever before.
§ Mr. BurtIs it not the case that the privatisation programme is proceeding apace throughout the world, that Socialist Sweden has returned 15 companies with a total turnover of £100 million to the private sector, and that only the Albanian-style Labour party is kicking against this trend?
§ Mr. LamontMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. Privatisation programmes are being implemented in many countries in Europe, Asia and also North America. Yet only yesterday the Labour party recommitted itself to the 426 renationalisation of the water industry, which shows that it has not understood that privatisation is a programme that is immensely popular in this country.