HC Deb 13 December 1990 vol 182 cc486-7W
Mr. Morgan

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what is his total estimate of the total number of the individual applicants for shares in each of the 12 regional electricity companies grouped by head of household jointly with spouse and dependent children and other resident dependent relatives.

Mr. Heathcoat-Amory

The information requested is not available.

Mr. Morgan

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy, pursuant to his answer of 10 December, when he expects to be in a position to provide statistics for the numbers of shareholders resident within the franchise area of each regional electricity company and the percentage of the total share capital owned by them.

Mr. Heathcoat-Amory

We made available 54.6 per cent. of the total share capital in each company to the United Kingdom public. Of this, the percentages allocated to employees and preferential customers applying on priority forms are set out in the table. Applications received from customers, other than on priority application forms, cannot be separately identified and are therefore not included in the figures.

Number of customer and employee priority applications '000s Percentage of shares available to the public allocated to customers and employees
Eastern Electricity 603 53.4
East Midlands Electricity 303 37.5
London Electricity 289 36.0
Manweb 187 52.0
Midland Electricity 308 45.6
Northern Electric 165 53.3
Norweb 306 49.9
Seeboard 389 58.9
Southern Electric 472 48.4
South Wales Electricity 109 47.6
South Western Electricity 227 57.5
Yorkshire Electricity 256 42.0