Utilities – Gas and Electricity Supply
Utilities – Gas and Electricity Supply
Local authority involvement in gas and electricity supply resulted from the provision of street lighting. The first general police act enabled burghs to ‘contract for lighting in a suitable manner, with Oil, Gas or otherwise’.[1] Subsequent legislation continued to permit contracts and by 1862 extended the lighting provisions to enable local authorities to compel owners to light private streets, closes and other areas.[2]
The companies which local authorities contracted to supply gas were private, commercial enterprises incorporated by acts of parliament such as the Glasgow Gas-Light Co incorporated in 1817 and the Paisley Gas Co, incorporated in 1823.[3] Each change to the working capital and loan facilities of these companies required new acts of parliament and in 1847 and 1871 the Gasworks Clauses Acts set out common clauses and principles to be used in provisional orders and subsequent legislation.[4] However, it become more practical for the local authority itself to make and supply gas, whether by constructing their own works or by taking over local private gas companies, through local acts of parliament, such as the Glasgow Corporation Gas Act 1869 or the Falkirk Corporation Gas Act 1894.[5] The Burghs Gas Supply (Scotland) Act 1876 empowered town councils to undertake the supply of gas within their burgh, enabling them to appoint a gas committee, erect gasworks and purchase any company which had not been incorporated by act of parliament or authorised by a provisional order confirmed by Parliament, The act did not empower burghs to supply gas in another burgh or in an area of commercial gas company incorporated by act of parliament, effectively preventing direct competition, but it did permit them to contract to light adjoining burghs. In 1892 burghs were permitted to appoint an inspector of lighting and this post remained in the legislation until local government reorganisation in 1975 when references to most local authority job titles in previous legislation were repealed and replaced by the generic term ‘proper officer’.[6]
This legislation only applied to burghs. Under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894, special lighting districts could be formed which allowed the district committee to adopt the lighting clauses of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892 and the Burgh Gas Supply (Scotland) Act 1876, but this appears not to have happened.[7]
In 1934 the complaints from consumers about gas prices led to the Gas Undertaking Act 1934 which required the local authority to appoint a gas examiner unless they supplied gas to the public themselves. In the latter case, the appointment was made by the sheriff but the post’s salary and expenses were still the responsibility of the local authority.[8]
Until 1948, gas was manufactured and supplied by multiple private and local authority operated gas companies. Under the Gas Act, 1948 existing gas companies including local authority gas corporations were vested into twelve area gas boards, each an autonomous body with its own chairman and board structure.[9] The Scottish Gas Board was established on 1 May 1949 and dissolved in 1973 when it became a region of the British Gas Corporation.
Electricity began to emerge as an alternative method of lighting streets in the late 19th century and by 1892 the legislation mentioned electricity alongside gas.[10] The general Electricity Acts allowed the Board of Trade to authorise the supply of electricity in a local area by individuals, companies or local authorities.[11] From 1919 the Ministry of Transport replaced the Board of Trade in this role.
Until 1947, electricity was generated by companies and local authority corporations but there was a gradual move towards greater central co-ordination of supply. In 1919 Electricity Commissioners were appointed to establish electricity districts and joint electricity authorities were set up to ‘provide or secure the provision of a cheap and abundant supply of electricity within their district’.[12] In 1926 the Central Electricity Board was established while the Electricity Commissioners were made responsible for preparing a scheme for interconnection and standardisation of frequency.[13] The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board was established in 1943 as a public authority with a duty to generate electricity and supply it to authorised undertakers, consumers and the Central Electricity Board.[14]
The Electricity Act 1947 nationalised the electricity supply industry.[15] This replaced the Central Electricity Board with the British Electricity Authority and established 14 area boards including the South East Scotland Electricity Board and the South West Scotland Electricity Board. The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board was not one of the 14 Area Boards and continued as a separate body. At the time there were 51 authorised suppliers of electricity in Scotland, more than half of which were local authority corporations.[16] Alongside the Area Boards, Electricity Consultative Councils were set up as independent advisory bodies and these were replaced by the Office for Electricity Regulation in 1990.[17]
Records of local electricity companies and local gas undertakings may be held by local authority archives services, particularly where these companies were operated by the local authorities.
The National Records of Scotland (NRS) holds the records of the Scottish Gas Board and some of its predecessor companies, 1821-1979, (reference code GB). NRS also holds the records of the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (reference code NSE), the South of Scotland Electricity Board (reference code SSE), the Electricity Consultative Councils (reference code ELC) and there are related government files from the Scottish Development Department (DD11) and the Scottish Office Industry Department (SEP14). NRS also hold records of gas and electricity companies in the records of dissolved companies (BT2).
Compiler: Elspeth Reid (2021)
Bibliography
Bell, James, and James Paton, Glasgow: Its Municipal Organization and Administration (J. MacLehose and Sons, 1896)
Ferguson, Keith, An introduction to local government in Scotland (The Planning Exchange, 1984)
Whyte, W. E., Local Government in Scotland (Hodge & Co, 1936)
References
[1] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. 4. c.46) s.108.
[2] Police (Scotland) Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c.33) s.215; General Police and Improvement (Scotland) Act 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c.101) s.126, s.130.
[3] Glasgow Gas Local Act 1817 (57 Geo. III c.xli); Paisley Gas Local Act 1823(4 Geo. IV c.lxxii ).
[4] Gasworks Clauses Act 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c.15).
[5] Glasgow Corporation Gas Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c.lviii); Falkirk Corporation Gas Act 1894 (57 & 58 Vict. c.lxviii).
[6] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c.55) s.74; Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c.65).
[7] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894 (57 & 58 Vict. c.58) s.44; Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c.55) s.99-105; Whyte, W E The Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1929: a popular exposition of its provisions (Hodge & Co, 1929) pp.485-87
[8] Gas Undertakings Act 1934 (24 & 25 Geo. V c.28).
[9] Gas Act, 1948 (11 & 12 Geo. VI c.67).
[10] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c.55) s.99.
[11] Whyte, pp. 505-515.
[12] Electricity (Supply) Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. V c.100) s.8.
[13] Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 (16 & 17 Geo. V c.51).
[14] Hydro-Electric Development (Scotland) Act 1943 (6 & 7 Geo. VI c.32).
[15] Electricity Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. VI c.54).
[16] Electricity Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. VI c.54) Sch.2.
[17] Electricity Act 1989 (c.29)