£21bn TYCOON J.R. TOPS UK RICH LIST
Ratcliffe rises 17 places to clinch his place at No1
THE BOSS of a petrochemical firm who once suggested scrapping tea breaks at a plant in Scotland has been named the richest man in Britain.
Jim Ratcliffe, 65, topped the Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune of £21.05billion.
He shot to No1 from 18th place last year after his petrochemicals fortune surged by £15.3billion. His Rich List rise follows a re-evaluation of his wealth.
Ratcliffe angered staff and unions at Ineos’s plant in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, when he said he wanted to ban tea breaks – claiming it leads to “high levels of unproductive time”.
Workers agreed to a pay freeze and other concessions as part of a survival plan in 2013 to end the threat of the plant being shut.
Last September, he said he planned to open a 1000-worker, £600million factory to build a replacement for the scrapped
Land Rover Discovery. But he told the Government he would need financial backing or he would take his investment to Germany.
The Sunday Times described him as a “publicity-shy” businessman who once lived in a council house.
The yacht-owning tycoon is the first British-born industrialist to top the list.
Born the son of a joiner, he reportedly spent the first 10 years of his life in a modest council house in a north Manchester suburb. He was sacked from his first job after three days and didn’t start a business until he was nearly 40.
Ineos director Andy Currie and finance chief John Reece also made the list, in joint 16th place with a fortune of £7billion each.
The Rich List contains dozens of self-made success stories, with 94 per cent being entrepreneurs.
Brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja were named in second place, with estimated wealth of £20.64billion. Their fortune rose by £4.44billion following a strong year for their India-based car manufacturing company Ashok Leyland and Mumbai-based IndusInd Bank.
British-American Sir Len Blavatnik was third with £15.26billion. The 60-year-old was knighted last year for services to philanthropy, with recent gestures including a £50million donation to the Tate Modern’s new wing.
Of the 1000 on the list, 145 are billionaires. The top 20 are worth £33.5billion more than last year, with a combined wealth of £218.6billion.
Former BHS boss Sir Philip Green and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver were among those who saw their fortunes slide, with Oliver dropping off the list following a trying year for his restaurant chain.
Green’s fortune has fallen by £787million to £2billion following the fallout from the BHS collapse.