Thousands of jobs secured after £230m boost for Grangemouth

Westminster has secured thousands of jobs in Scotland by handing a £230 million loan guarantee to Ineos, the chemicals giant that is Britain’s biggest private company.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, today announced the infrastructure guarantee, which will be used to build a terminal to store and process ethane at Grangemouth in the Firth of Forth.

The tank will be the largest in Europe and the ethane — which comes from US shale gas — will be largely used to make plastic.

Ineos came close to shutting the oil refinery complex last year during a tense industrial dispute with the Unite union, but workers eventually accepted changes to pay and conditions.

“Without doubt, this is one of the most important projects of recent times in Scotland, with implications to be felt right across the UK, not only for employment but also for manufacturing in general”, said Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe.