Chemicals tycoon warns the UK has its head in the clouds with wind power ambitions

Chemicals tycoon Sir Jim Ratcliffe has launched a blistering attack on UK energy policy – saying ‘you are not able to power the whole of the UK on wind.’

Sir Jim, the billionaire owner of Ineos, and a potential buyer for Manchester United, criticised the British Government for banning fracking and deterring investment in North Sea oil and gas through windfall taxes.

The Monaco-based tycoon, who is worth £29.6billion according to the Sunday Times Rich List said: ‘Whether we like it or not, we cannot survive without hydrocarbons as that is 85 per cent of our energy base in the UK,’ he said. Government data puts this figure at 75 per cent.

‘Energy policy is complex, but it’s not rocket science […] You are not going to be able to power the whole of the UK on wind.’ By contrast, he said, the US had ‘got most of it right’ in terms of energy policy, having kept prices low – including by exploiting its own resources.

‘Having competitive energy is critically important if you want people to continue to invest in your manufacturing base,’ he told the FT.

‘Energy policy is complex, but it’s not rocket science […] You are not going to be able to power the whole of the UK on wind,’ said Sir Jim

Ratcliffe made his remarks at an event in London to promote a new book about Ineos – Grit, Rigour & Humour – marking the company’s 25th anniversary.

Earlier this week he accused the Competition and Markets Authority of becoming ‘increasingly hostile to business’ as it had blocked Ineos’s deal to buy Swiss company Sika’s concrete additives business.

‘Its attitude is mirrored in the lack of government support for manufacturing; whether in reviews such as this, or in our uncompetitive approach to energy policy,’ he said.

Ratcliffe founded Ineos in 1998 with co-owners Andy Currie and John Reece, buying up assets from ICI, BP and others to make one of the world’s biggest chemical concerns.

It owns oil and gas fields in the US and the North Sea and is one of the world’s biggest plastic makers.

It has expanded into new ventures in recent years such as developing the off-road Grenadier 4×4 vehicle, and buying up football club OGC Nice, and fashionable clothing brand Belstaff.

Ineos is now vying with Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Qatari businessman, to buy Manchester United from the Glazer family.

Responding to those comments, the Government insisted Britain was ‘open for business and has shown a clear strategy for UK manufacturing with a variety of schemes that ensure sectors from auto to aerospace, to low-carbon technologies have access to the funding, talent, and infrastructure they need’.