Britain: An official handbook > 1959

INDUSTRY
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acquired, of which over 46,000 acres had been planted. The present afforestation
programme provides for the creation as soon as possible of an area of 150,000 acres
of productive State forest with a sustained yield roughly equal to the present yearly
consumption of timber in Northern Ireland, i.e. some 30,000 standards (one
standard is 165 true cubic feet of sawn timber). To reach this objective, a minimum
annual planting rate of 3,500 acres, increasing to 4,000 acres within the next two
years, has been set.
Financial provision is made by sums voted annually by Parliament and receipts
from forest produce, rentals and other sources. From 1922 to 31st March, 1958,
expenditure totalled £5,165,000, and receipts, other than parliamentary grants, were
£1,691,000. Output and employment are growing steadily. The area of exploitable
private woodlands is at present some 20,000 acres, and private planting, which is
gaining impetus, is assisted by schemes for the supply, at a low cost, of young trees
from the Ministry’s nurseries, by grants towards the cost of the establishment of
new plantations, and by free technical advice.
FUEL AND POWER
The main primary sources of energy in Britain are coal, petroleum and, to a
small extent, water power ; secondary sources, produced from these, are electricity
and coal gas.
Britain’s annual energy requirements are expected to rise from 250 million
to 300 million tons coal equivalent by 1965. Coal, mined within the country, supplies
some 85 per cent of this energy and it will remain the principal source for many years
to come. But it is unlikely that production of coal can be increased sufficiently, even
by the very large investments planned, to satisfy the additional needs. For supplies
of crude petroleum Britain is almost entirely dependent on imports; water power
resources are small. A large-scale programme for the construction of nuclear
power stations has, therefore, been inaugurated, and by 1966-67 nuclear energy,
it is estimated, may account for about 6 per cent of total energy requirements and
some 22 per cent of electricity consumption. The fuel and power industries, with
the exception of the petroleum industry, are under public ownership.
The Government’s fuel and power policy has two principal objectives. The first
is to ensure that power supplies are adequate to meet the rapidly growing demands
of industry and of the domestic consumer in a country with an expanding national
income. The second is to make the maximum possible use of indigenous resources
and so lighten the load on the balance of payments.
The Government also aims to reduce air pollution. The Clean Air Act, 1956,
which came fully into force on 1st June, 1958, makes it an offence to emit dark
smoke or to fail to provide industrial premises with equipment to arrest grit
and dirt, and empowers local authorities, subject to the approval of the Minister
of Housing and Local Government, to declare ‘smoke control areas’, in which the
emission of smoke from chimneys will constitute an offence; provision is made for
the payment of grants by local authorities and the Exchequer towards the costs
incurred by owners and occupiers of premises in these areas in making necessary
changes to appliances. A Clean Air Council, to review progress and to advise the
Minister, was set up in May 1957-
COAL
Coal has been worked in Britain for over 700 years and an organised coalmining
industry has been in existence for over 300 years, some 200 years longer than in
any other European country. British coal exports dominated the world coal market