Sorry to paste such a long list, but it always occurs to me when people complain about 'selling the family silver', that much of that silver was compulsorily purchased from it's previous owners, by different governments.


1869 Nationalisation of inland telegraphs under the GPO
1875 Suez Canal Company - The Egyptian share in the company was bought out by the British Government.
1912 Nationalisation of inland telephone services under the GPO, apart from Portsmouth, Hull, Guernsey, and Jersey. The Portsmouth telephone service was nationalised the following year.
1916 Liquor Trade - The nationalisation of pubs and breweries in Carlisle, Gretna, Cromarty and Enfield under the State Management Scheme; mainly an attempt to restricting alcohol consumption by armaments factory workers. The scheme was privatised by asset transfer in 1973.
1926 Central Electricity Board introduced under The Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 founded National Grid UK and set up a national standard for electricity supply in the UK.
1927 British Broadcasting Company (a privately owned company) became British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a public corporation operating under a Royal Charter.
1933 London Transport
1938 Nationalisation of UK Coal Royalties under the Coal Commission
1939 British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) later to become British Airways (BA) - combining the private British Airways Ltd. and the state owned Imperial Airways
1939 At the outset of WWII, much of British industry was subjected to State regulation or control, although not nationalised as such.
1943 North of Scotland Hydro-Electricity Board
1946 Coal industry under the National Coal Board (later British Coal); Bank of England - the latter had had private shareholders who were bought out by the state.
1947 Central Electricity Generating Board and area electricity boards, Cable & Wireless Ltd - the latter had had private shareholders who were bought out by the state.
1948 National rail, water transport, some road haulage, road passenger transport and Thomas Cook & Son under the British Transport Commission. Separate elements operated as British Railways, British Road Services, and British Waterways, also National Health Service taking over a mixture of previously Local Authority, private commercial and charitable organisations.
1949 Local authority gas supply undertakings in England, Scotland and Wales
1951 Iron and Steel Industry (denationalised by the following Conservative Government)
1967 British Steel
1969 National Bus Company, combining former interests of the British Transport Commission with others acquired from the British Electric Traction group.
1971 Rolls-Royce (1971) Ltd - The strategically-important aero-engine part of the recently-bankrupt Rolls Royce Limited.
1973 Local authority water supply undertakings in England and Wales
1974 British Petroleum - the combination of a 50% stake bought by Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty after World War I with around a 25% stake acquired by the Bank of England from Burmah Oil made the UK Government directly or indirectly BP's majority shareholder, though commercial independence was maintained. The shares were all sold during the 1980s.
1975 National Enterprise Board - a State holding company for full or partial ownership of industrial undertakings
1976 British Leyland Motor Corporation - became British Leyland upon nationalization. Privatized in 1986 to British Aerospace.
1977 British Aerospace - combining the major aircraft companies British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley and others. British Shipbuilders - combining the major shipbuilding companies including Cammell Laird, Govan Shipbuilders, Swan Hunter, Yarrow Shipbuilders
1984 Johnson Matthey - purchased for a nominal sum of £1 by the Thatcher government
1997 Docklands Light Railway - John Prescott announced to the 1997 Labour Party Conference that he had nationalised this.
2001 Railtrack - although not nationalised as such, the takeover by Network Rail of the railway infrastructure in 2002 following the liquidation of Railtrack, whilst not a state owned company, has no shareholders (company limited by guarantee) and is underwritten by the State. In addition prior to this the government began to make use of a residual shareholding of 0.2% (including voting rights) in Railtrack Group Plc leftover from the original sale.
2008 Northern Rock - announced by Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer on 17 February 2008 as 'a temporary measure'. The bank will be run at 'arms length' as a commercial business and sold to a private buyer in the future.
2008 Bradford & Bingley (mortgage book only) - announced by Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer on 29 September 2008. The loans part of the company was nationalised, while the commercial bank was sold off.
2008 In October, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and the newly merged HBOS-Lloyds TSB will be partially nationalised. The Government will take approximately 60% of RBS and 40% of HBOS-Lloyds TSB. This is part of the £500bn bank rescue package.