Ineos in £1bn investment

THE chemicals company owned by Britain’s richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has announced a bumper £1bn investment in the UK’s energy industry this year.

But Ineos’s announcement has triggered fresh outrage over Ratcliffe’s tax affairs, after it was reported that he and two colleagues are looking to avoid paying up to £4bn by moving to Monaco.

Ineos will spend £500m to extend the life of the Forties Pipeline system, which transports around 40pc of the UK’s North Sea oil and gas, by around 20 years. Ineos will also invest £350m in a new energy plant at Grangemouth, Scotland, and £150m in a petrochemicals plant in Hull.

Ratcliffe, 66, who topped the Sunday Times’ rich list last year with £21bn, owns 60pc of Ineos. Robert Palmer, executive director of Tax Justice UK, said: ‘While investment in the UK is welcome, there are big questions over Jim Ratcliffe’s reported plans to become a tax exile in Monaco.

‘We need to fix the system to make it harder for wealthy individuals and big companies to slash their tax bills.’