Economic Liberal or Arch Planner? Enoch Powell and the Political Economy of the Hospital Plan

Abstract

The article critically analyses the view that Enoch Powell's promotion of the 1962 Hospital Plan was strategically incoherent. It has been argued that there was a contradiction between Powell's economic liberal position on public expenditure and his support for the Plan as a major long-term public sector capital expenditure programme. The article argues that Powell's promotion of the Plan was designed to be part of a consistent economic liberal strategy. However, the approach was problematic because of his mistaken belief that the Plan could be reconciled with modest growth in hospital running costs. This weakness is analysed with reference to the failure by Powell, and by leading officials in the Ministry of Health and the Treasury, to understand the dynamics of acute hospital costs.