HC Deb 16 January 1997 vol 288 cc379-80W
18. Mr. Hunter

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimates he has made of the current number of private shareholders in the privatised utilities. [9533]

Mr. Jack

The most recent Government survey suggested that the number of individual shareholders was around 10 million, three times higher than the figure in 1979. Well over half of this number owned shares in privatised companies.