The electricity, gas and English water industries were split up and sold off. Exchange controls, in operation since the war, were abolished in 1979. British net assets abroad rose approximately ninefold from £12 billion at the end of 1979 to nearly £110 billion at the end of 1986, a record post-war level and second only to Japan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_the_United_Kingdom#1979.E2.80.931990:_the_Thatcher_era