Shockwave: Britain’s brutal winter and nationalisation in 1947
Katrina Gaffney looks at the nationalisation of our energy system
19 August 2026
A miniseries from the New Economics Podcast which asks how have energy crises shaped our economy and what do we need to do to shockproof our energy system in an increasingly volatile world?
It’s 1947. People in the UK were facing one of the most brutal winters on modern record. It was so cold that sheep and cows froze to death in their fields. There was so much snow that railways and roads were blocked off, causing problems with the transportation of coal and the generation of electricity.
1947 was significant for another reason. It was the year the Electricity Act passed, which nationalised the electricity supply in the UK. In this first episode we’re asking: what made the government at the time nationalise some of our energy system? Is a nationalised energy system better able to absorb shocks? And did nationalisation improve people’s everyday lives?
Katrina Gaffney was joined by New Economics Foundation economists Dr Alex Chapman and Jaya Sood, alongside writer and academic Gareth Fearn, to find out.
Music by Maarten Schellekens, Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org/music/maarten-…ike-clockwork/ used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by— nc/4.0/.
