UK industry faces ‘extinction’ due to net zero, Sir Jim Ratcliffe says

80 jobs have been lost

It comes after his company Ineos was forced to shut down a synthetic ethanol centre at Grangemouth in Falkirk, Scotland last week.

The closure resulted in the loss of 80 direct roles and an estimated 500 indirect jobs in the wider economy.

The co-owner of Manchester United and one of Britain's richest men, said: "De-industrialising Britain achieves nothing for the environment, it merely shifts production and emissions elsewhere.

"The UK, and particularly the North, needs high quality manufacturing and the associated manufacturing jobs. We are witnessing the extinction of one of our major industries as chemical manufacture has the life squeezed out of it."

The Grangemouth plant had an annual production capacity of 180,000 tonnes and its output was used in the production of pharmaceuticals.

Ineos has said that the plant was losing money due to high energy costs doubling over the last five years. Energy costs in the UK are now five times higher than in the US.

The business added that the UK’s carbon taxes had “forced the closure” of its plant, which was “essential for the manufacture of many pharmaceutical drugs”.

The company warned that the country's current emissions trading scheme, which allows greenhouse gas producers to trade allowances on how much pollution they emit, was damaging the domestic market.

Importers are not hit with the same costs.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is now calling on the government to secure competitive pricing for natural gas, a revamped emissions trading regime and trade policy that supports UK manufacturing.

The company’s emissions at Grangemouth have fallen by almost 50pc over the last 20 years, Ineos said, with an aim of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

However, they warned that the lack of carbon reduction schemes in other countries meant the cost of purifying ethanol in the UK was equivalent to a 10pc price increase.

In the last five years, ten large chemicals plants have closed across Britain.

Grangemouth was one of just two synthetic ethanol centres remaining in Europe.

Ineos Energy’s chairman, Brian Gilvary said in December that UK's approach to future energy investments was 'too negative'.

He said: "The country's current tax regime, its over-regulation and the negative political attitude towards oil and gas are barriers that would deter any investor now.

"The US, by contrast, has long been an attractive market for energy investment – with a stable fiscal regime, supported by governments that understand the importance of affordable energy security."

However, a government spokesman blamed the 'disappointing news from Ineos' on the 'failure of Scotland's two governments to have a credible industrial strategy'.