Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
There are no ready explanations for the shift from private to public ownership of the infrastructure which occurred in many Western countries in the period from about 1850 onwards. This paper presents for the first time, from parliamentary and trade sources, a comprehensive record of the number of gas undertakings in England and Wales, their geographical spread and the incidence of municipal ownership. The experience of some 400 towns are analysed for the period 1851–1939 to ascertain the causes of municipalisation. These are identified as the desire of local authorities to get access to gas company profits in order to relieve local taxes and finance urban improvements, and to control the monopoly position of local suppliers. Municipalisation also involved costs, mainly of an administrative and legal nature. The differential incidence of these costs and benefits can be used to explain the complex pattern of public and private ownership which persisted to the Second World War.
Millward et al. (Thu,) studied this question.