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BET purchase was THC's idea
Page 50
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• The scheme for the Transport Holding Company to take over the buses of British Electric Traction was not a "Socialist pipe dream" by Mrs. Castle, but the idea of the THC itself, emphasized a Government spokesman last week. Lord Shepherd, speaking at the end of an Upper House debate on the Bill which gives the THC power to borrow the money to complete the deal, quoted from a letter sent by Mrs. Castle to Sir Reginald Wilson.
This letter—dated December 20 1967—reminded Sir Reginald that "earlier this year you told me that your Board considered the circumstances were such that it might be desirable for the Transport Holding Company to seek to acquire full control of the BET group of bus companies, in the great majority of which the THC already had large shareholdings, equal in fact to that of the BET".
Introducing the Bill—which was approved without a division—Lord Hilton of Upton pointed out that both the THC and the BET group operated through locally based subsidiary bus companies, and it was not intended that this practice should generally be changed. But there were savings to be made where the routes of some companies met, or even overlapped, particularly where it was practicable and operationally sensible to transfer buses and routes from one company to another.