Corporate Planning in the British Gas Corporation
| Published date | 01 March 1974 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1974.tb00163.x |
| Author | C.E. MILLS |
| Date | 01 March 1974 |
Corporate Planning in the British Gas Corporation
C.E.MILLS
Mr.Milli
k
Member
for
Economic Planning, British
Gas
Corporation. This is
th
text ofa lecture given on
22
October
1973
in
the
RIPA’S
series on ‘Corporate
Planning’.
PERSPECTIVE
British
Gas
has
just
passed through
two
consecutive years in which sales
have grown at a rate of nearly
30
per cent. per annum. Moreover, this
growth rate has been sustained during what is probably the largest and
most intensive conversion programme undertaken anywhere in the world.
There have been strains and stresses in a few places, but generally
I
think
it is fair to say this growth was foreseen, planned for and achieved success-
fully by the Gas Industry in Britain.
Rapid growth is achieved by many industries, of course, but not often
by large and long-established industries like Gas. It is fortunate perhaps
that the management team in the
Gas
Industry in the
1960s
was united
in purpose and open to the adoption of new methods in all spheres of
activities from planning and marketing to engineering technology and
appliance development.
I
say ‘fortunate’ because you must remember
that until
I
January
1973
the British
Gas
Industry was run by twelve
autonomous Area Gas Boards with
a
central Gas Council
(on
which all
twelve area Chairmen sat) which had the duty merely to ‘promote and
assist the co-ordinated devcloprnent of efficient and economical gas
supplies in Great Britain’ (Gas Act
1965),
without any real powers
of
control
-
except indirectly by approval of capital investment proposals
and of plans in certain defined areas of operations. Nevertheless,
as
the
central supplier of natural gas, the
Gas
Council did have direct control
over the development of the national transmission grid, which absorbed
a
major part of the new investment in the late
1960s
and early
1970s
and, by its pricing policy towards the Area Boards, could strongly influence
their marketing plans.
Since
I
January
1973
the twelve Area Boards have been absorbed into
the Gas Council and the whole renamed the British Gas Corporation with
the duty
‘ta
develop and maintain an efficient, co-ordinated and econ-
omical system of gas supply for Great Britain’
(Gas
Act
1972).
The twelve
27
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