Industrial Efficiency and State Intervention

 

 

 

Chapter 8

Evaluation and implications

 

 

 

The previous discussion has focused on what Labour did about productivity between 1945 and 1951. It has demonstrated that the Government remained very concerned about the issue throughout the whole period and was willing to intervene in a number of different ways to stimulate improvement. In this chapter, the aim is to provide some perspective on Labour's initiatives, by asking questions about what was actually achieved in terms of the central policy objective — the amelioration of productivity. Did the administration's policies have any real impact on British industry's efficiency? And what were the factors that determined the efficacy, one way or another, of the various Government measures? ...