How far have the frontiers of the state been rolled back between 1979 and 1987?

Abstract

The Conservative Government came to power in 1979, with the general aim of reducing the role of the public sector. One measure of their success or failure is the extent to which the public estate ‐ the financial and physical assets which go to make it up ‐ have been reduced or transferred to the private sector. Against that standard their record falls far short of what the rhetoric appeared to promise, and their opponents feared ‐ a wholesale dismantling of the State.