Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos has posted net profits of £472 million thanks to the soaring price of oil and gas that has left families unable to heat their homes.
Ineos has reported that last year it took record profits of nearly £500m, a serious step up from 2020’s £226m loss.
The company said it benefited from the average gas prices rising by 264% to 91p per therm during the period. Prices are said to have grown further since then.
This news comes as reports show that 45 million people in the UK will find themselves in poverty as energy prices raise and winter fast approaches.
Two-thirds of all UK households – or 18 million families – will be plunged into financial precariousness by January due to soaring inflation – which is already at 40-year record high.
According to the study on fuel poverty by the University of York, the region hardest hit will be Northern Ireland with 76.3% of families battling to make ends meet, followed by Scotland at 72.8%, then the West Midlands (70.9%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (70.6%).
Research published by The Guardian newspaper further stated that 86.4% of pensioner couples will fall into fuel poverty. Single parent households with two or more children will bare the brunt at 90.4%.
Ratcliffe owns around 60% of Ineos, which he founded in 1998, and is one of the country’s richest people with an estimated £6bn fortune.
In 2020 the billionaire moved to Monaco in 2020, now living in the tax-free country Ratcliffe is estimated to have saved £4 billion in tax payments.
People who live in Monaco for at least 183 days a year do not pay any income or property taxes.
Before he upped sticks, Sir Ratcliffe was the UK’s third highest individual taxpayer, paying £110m to the exchequer in 2017-18.
The billionaire recently expressed an interest in taking over Manchester United football club despite the team’s poor start to the season landing them the bottom spot on the premier league table.
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