British Shipbuilders

British Shipbuilders

British Shipbuilders Corporation was a public corporation that owned and managed the shipbuilding industry in England and Scotland from 1977 and through the 1980s. The British Shipbuilders Corporation headquarters was in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

The corporation was founded as a result of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 which nationalised all major shipbuilding companies in Great Britain. The same act nationalised the three large UK aviation companies and grouped them in an analogous corporation, British Aerospace.

The first Chairman of British Shipbuilders, serving from 1978 to 1981, was Admiral Sir Anthony Griffin.

Harland & Wolff, the only shipbuilder based in Northern Ireland was a special political case and remained out of the control of the British Shipbuilders management, despite being in State ownership. British Shipbuilders was privatised in 1983 under the terms of the British Shipbuilders Act 1983. The various divisions that had survived under nationalised ownership were divested throughout the 1980s as the company wound up operations.

The British Shipbuilders Corporation continues to exist in statute in order to be accountable for any liabilities incurred during its operational history, but will finally be abolished in 2011, as part of the Government's 2010 economic and governmental reforms (2010 UK quango reforms), with any remaining liabilities passing to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.