Guy Hands attacks Tory stance on wind farms

Guy Hands, one of the best-known figures in the City of London, says a Labour-Scottish National party majority would be the best election outcome for the green energy companies his Terra Firma buyout company backs.

"There's no question that for the renewable business as a whole, an SNP-Labour party majority would be far better than the Conservatives based on what the Conservatives currently say, which is a policy I don't understand," Mr Hands told the Financial Times in an interview.

The private equity boss's comments are at odds with the FTSE 100 bosses who have publicly warned they fear a Labour government, especially the "nightmare" prospect of Labour having to enter some sort of deal with the SNP.

Mr Hands, whose Terra Firma private equity company is a large wind and solar power investor, agreed a Labour-SNP deal would probably be "very bad for the City of London".

But he said he was deeply concerned about the "emotional hatred" Conservatives seemed to have about onshore wind farms.

"They're 10 years behind the times," he said, explaining that their animosity seemed to be based on an outdated understanding of the cost of wind power, which has become much cheaper in the past decade.

Other green energy business leaders, such as Dale Vince, founder of the Ecotricity energy supplier, are publicly backing Labour in this election, partly because they fear the UK could leave Europe if the Conservatives win.

That prospect also worries Mr Hands who said: "I think an SNP-Labour coalition would guarantee that Britain stays in Europe. It would be very good for some of the businesses we have.

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"The UK government is shouting from the sidelines but not getting involved and it must be very frustrating for the Germans who are trying to move towards some level of reform in Europe, not to have Britain's support."

Mr Hands said he had not made any political donations for many years and tried to stay "politically agnostic".

However, he played down fears about Labour's mansion tax, a policy widely thought to be repellent to wealthy financiers, arguing rich UK residents were used to property taxes, which were very common around the world.

"My personal view is they would be happy to pay a mansion tax," he said, but a wealth tax would have "a very, very negative effect".

Terra Firma had been focusing on renewable energy investments after losing its £1.75bn investment in EMI in 2012 and has backed Infinis, the UK wind, biogas and hydro generator and Rete Rinnovabile, the Italian solar power group.

He has been raising money for a $2bn fund aimed at renewable energy infrastructure but more than a year after its launch he admits progress has been slow.

"We would do it if we could find the investment opportunities and we do now have the investors who would want to back us but the market isn't really there," he told the FT.

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