The National Enterprise Board (NEB) was a United Kingdom government body. It was set up in 1975 by the Labour government of Harold Wilson, to support the government's interventionist approach to industry. In 1981 the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, combined the NEB with the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) to form the British Technology Group. Background The NEB was the brainchild of the economist Stuart Holland and the Shadow Secretary of State for Industry Tony Benn in the early-1970s, and was modelled on the Italian Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI), which was seen to have successfully restructured the Italian economy after World War II. In its original conception, the NEB was intended to extend public control and ownership of the economy, by taking a stake in the UK's leading manufacturing firms, which would then be required to make planning agreements to meet economic targets. Although the leadership of the Labour Party did not fully accept these proposals, they appeared in the Labour Party's manifesto for the February 1974 general election and the October 1974 election. The Labour Party manifesto for the October 1974 general election stated: We shall set up a National Enterprise Board to administer publicly-owned share-holdings: to extend public ownership into profitable manufacturing industry by acquisitions, partly or wholly, of individual firms; to stimulate investment; to create employment in areas of high unemployment; to encourage industrial democracy; to promote industrial efficiency; to increase exports and reduce our dependence on imports; to combat private monopoly; and to prevent British industries from passing into unacceptable foreign control. A new and urgent Industry Act will provide for a system of Planning Agreements between the Government and key companies to ensure that the plans of those companies are in harmony with national needs and objectives and that Government financial assistance is deployed where it will be most effectively used. Wherever we give direct aid to a company out of public funds we shall reserve the right to take a proportionate share of the ownership of the company; and wherever possible this public support will be channelled through the Planning Agreements System. History The plans were outlined in the 1974 White Paper The Regeneration of British Industry and the Industry Act 1975 enacted these measures, establishing the NEB. Its primary role was that of holding a substantial level of equity in major manufacturing companies. In its final form the NEB was