Liberalization?: Exchange controls and enterprise zones

This chapter explores two examples: the removal of exchange controls and enterprise zones. Enterprise zones were taken from a number of strands of thought and policies of the post-war period, although not specifically thinkers like Friedman. The policy of enterprise zones was to transform some of these areas and satisfied some neoliberal themes. Enterprise zones were important in setting the general tone of the policies of the Thatcher government and aligned it with some of the tenets of economic liberalism. Exchange controls still existed in Britain in 1979. More open trade, and the removal of barriers to this such as exchange controls, were strongly advocated by neoliberals. In so far as the Thatcher government went about market orientated policies it pursued liberalization and deregulation in selective ways. The chapter explores the most famous act of deregulation of the Thatcher years: Big Bang in the City of London.