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24
which must be placed on it as a. standard fuel, and the
necessity of determined reassurance to all as to its excellance
Twelve months later the same conference was opened by Lord
Hastings, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of
Housing and Local Government, with confirmation that supplies
could no longer be expected to meet demand, that future Smoke
Control Areas would need to be based on other fuels, and that an
immediate review of the National Fuel situation was in hand.
To make capital of all this would be easy. That no one,
nor anybody of real weight has done so, indicates that the
situation has not been brought about by lack of foresight or by
irresponsibility. The fact is that in this, as in other
fields, reasonable foresight has been defeated by the pace of
technology. Ten years ago, when the Beaver Committee was
preparing the ground for the Clean Air Act of 1956, the Gas
Boards bought their coal, heated it to form town gas, and were
then left with coke. It was fair to assume that as gas consumption
increased, so would the production of this particular
type of coke which was so suitable for open fires. As Smoke
Control Areas were progressively secured a fair balance of
change to either gas heating or the open coke fire could be
maintained by the basis of grant and by the adjustment of price
differentials as between coke and gas.
Quite suddenly, it seemed, two factors arose which completely
upset this balance. Vast sources of natural gas
became available which, imported at low cost in liquid form,
could be released into the gas grid with minimal treatment.
Secondly the production of town gas from oil became practicable,
and this in plant which therm for therm represents perhaps a
quarter of the capital expenditure required by the traditional
gas works.
Here was the normal and planned increase in gas consumption
from smaller, cleaner and less costly and unsightly
installations, But obviously no coke evolves from these new
processes, and it will be increasingly uneconomic to sink
capital into the repair and maintenance of the old plants which
do produce it. It is probably fair to say that, with their
selective needs in quality and sizing, the Gas Boards are not
the valued customers of the rationalized National Coal Board
that they were ten years ago.
The Government's view of these facts and future prospects
was published in a White Paper in December, 1963, and with it
was issued a Circular setting out the revised procedure in
future Smoke Control Areas. In most future Areas the