Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos has been handed a reprieve by the Government following a row over “bonkers” rules that threatened to punish the British chemicals giant for going green. Whitehall officials have agreed to support Ineos after the company said it risked having to pay an extra £23m in net zero charges for converting a factory in Hull to run on hydrogen instead of gas. That was despite the change leading to a 75pc drop in the site’s emissions. David Brooks, the chief executive of Ineos Acetyls, said the business had been poised to lose out after the Environment Agency classed the site as a new development. This would have denied Ineos access to green allowances and forced it to spend £23m on carbon credits, a process that Mr Brooks described as “bonkers”. Before the climbdown, he said: “We’re being punished for doing the right thing. We’ve invested to slash emissions, and in return the Government wants to ‘re-categorise’ our site – leaving us over £23m worse off in the next couple of years. It sends entirely the wrong message.

Telegraph 30th June 2025 read more »