The Windward-Bute Empire, Fresh Insights

I had something else planned to go out on Monday, but I’ve held it back in light of fresh information I’ve received about the activities of Bute Energy. Information that raises wider considerations.

INTRODUCTION

Let me start with an apology. I’ve been writing about Bute’s activities in Wales for seven or eight years. This meant ignoring projects elsewhere, and overlooking Bute and Windward companies that had no obvious Welsh connection.

That may have been a mistake. And in view of recent events suggesting dubious links with China, no longer tenable. Dealt with on this blog.

Apology made, one company I have mentioned, one I could never make sense of, was Storagefolk Ltd. Presumably involved in . . . warehousing?

Launched 23.09.2017 Storagefolk appears to be the oldest surviving Windward-Bute company apart from Windward Enterprises Ltd (until very recently Windward Global), the ultimate holding company, where Oliver James Millican, capo di tutti capi in the W-B world, is in sole charge.

But what’s its purpose, and how does it fit into the wider empire? Information received offers some answers. And opens up a new line of inquiry.

As you can see from the Companies House entry for Storagefolk the address is in Mayfair, that upmarket district of London. The sole director is Millican. But he gives his address as Hodge House in Cardiff, where we find virtually all the companies relevant to Wales. Or at least, those we know about.

Listed as ‘person with significant control‘ (PSC) is Windward Global Ltd.

Though if we go through the main CH listing for Millican’s companies we see Storagefolk using the Hodge House address. (More Millican companies are listed here, here, here, and here.)

At the address in Curzon Street, hosting Storagefolk, we find Turcan Connell Company Secretaries Ltd. Scottish legal eagles with their HQ in Edinburgh. A company regularly used by Millican and his mates.

MY! WHAT A BIG WAREHOUSE YOU’VE GOT. AND SO MANY OF THEM!

Of the companies registered at that address, we’re interested in the ones shown in the panel below. Particularly those to which I’ve been directed. (Storagefolk appears on the previous page.)

Beginning with Windward Eurocentral MD Ltd. Sole director Oliver Millican. PSC is Windward RE Holdco Ltd (more on this company later). PSC for Windward RE Holdco Ltd is Windward Enterprises Ltd, the ultimate holding company mentioned earlier.

Turn to the charges and you’ll see one taken out in July 2023 and satisfied in April 2025. The lender was private bank Brown Shipley & Co Ltd. Brown Shipley is owned by Quintet Private Bank (Europe) SA of Luxembourg, which is in turn owned by Precision Capital:

Precision Capital is a Luxembourg-based holding company that represents the private interests of members of the Al-Thani family of Qatar.

The charge was against a building just to the east of Glasgow, close to the M8 that runs to Edinburgh. A property offering 127,000 square foot of space.

The next company is Windward Badentoy Ltd. Directors are Millican and TC Directors Ltd with an Edinburgh address. ‘TC’ of course is Turcan Connell again. The PSC is Windward RE Holdco 2 Ltd.

The charges, again with Brown Shipley, refer to industrial storage units such as this one, all near Aberdeen. Plus a floating charge.

The third is Windward RE Project Co 1 Ltd. Here are the players. It’s the Mayfair address with PSC again being Windward RE Holdco 2 Ltd. There are/were two outstanding charges with Brown Shipley. One a fixed and floating charge, the other refers to three properties in Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Another company worth looking at is Windward Z3B Ltd, with the same pattern. Funding from Brown Shipley for two more storage facilities on industrial or technology parks around Aberdeen.

And there was another company, one that I wrote about in August 2024. And other warehouse not far from the M8.

It was reported on October 2, 2018 that the Titan warehouse had been bought for £6.5M by Grayling Capital. This is Grayling Capital LLP, formed just over a year earlier.

David Taylor, one of those recently questioned by police in relation to China ‘spying’, was made a partner in Grayling Capital LLP in September 2019.

I could go on, but you should get the picture. Companies in the W-B empire have, for perhaps a decade, been buying up big warehouses, often borrowing from a ’boutique’ bank owned by an oil-rich family in Qatar.

A name mentioned in connection with W-B’s activity in the Aberdeen area is IKM. Said to be a tenant of properties owned by Windward-Bute. Here’s a piece from December last year and the Aberdeen Press & Journal.

In another major milestone, IKM Testing UK today opens its third facility as it pushes ahead with plans to expand into international markets, the renewables sector and increase its UK decommissioning work.

But IKM only accounts for some of W-B’s real estate, so the question remains: Why does it need all this storage space?

PLANNING AHEAD?

First, let me clear up the purpose of Storagefolk before telling you how Windward-Bute buying up vast areas of storage space was explained to me:

(Storagefolk) is purely a negotiating shell for projects in Scotland and NE England; it is used in proposals to financiers, a distinct legal entity is then formed post-investment decision to ring fence properties and interests – and distance from the risk of course.

As for the warehouses, it seems that W-B has been importing parts and components for turbines, solar installations, and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) for quite a few years.

This stockpiling is in anticipation of a crackdown on imported parts for ‘renewable’ energy projects. This seems plausible as the opposition mounts to increasing energy prices resulting from ‘Mad’ Ed Miliband’s Net Zero death-wish.

The real estate arm of the Windward portfolio . . . is working with multiple overseas businesses and at least one national government to house interests and commodity items relating to renewables infrastructure. There are warehouses in Wales and Scotland filled to the rafters with BESS and pylon materials – rented and landed for resale exclusively to the UK market to artificially appear to restrict overseas procurement and brand it as available when supply chains pinch in the late 2027 to early 2029 drive.

Is it just forward planning, or is there more to it?

As an example of ‘more to it’, can we assume these imports come from China? I’d put a few quid on it. And if I’ve picked the right nag, then this explains a few other things.

For as we’ve recently learnt, it’s impossible to escape the China connection when dealing with Windward-Bute. So I was not surprised to be told that two of the Big Three (Oliver James Millican, Stuart Allan George, and Lawson Douglas Steel) have even stated they’d sell to “interested parties from China at the right price“.

But none of these machinations would be possible without political influence, and that influence is not confined to Labour in Wales.

Let’s remember that Tom Watson, former deputy leader of the UK Labour party, now Baron Watson of Wyre Forest, is a non-executive director of Windward Energy Ltd, where he’s listed as plain old Thomas Anthony Watson.

It’s suggested this provides a good connection through Great British Energy to ‘Mad’ Ed Miliband himself, the apostle of Net Zero, de-industrialisation, and electricity consumer impoverishment.

To sum up: there is a concerted effort not only to increase expenditure and reliance on ‘renewables’, but also to remove cheaper and more reliable alternatives. This explains why the UK is closing down North Sea oil and gas . . . only to buy from Norway, which extracts from the same North Sea source.

Proving it has sod all to do with saving the planet.

This is the ugly world inhabited by Windward-Bute. It’s not limited to wind turbines despoiling landscapes, it’s about using political influence to remove competition providing more reliable and cheaper alternatives.

In Wales, this has resulted in the infiltration of the Labour party to the point where it’s hopelessly compromised. Election posters for May’s Senedd elections should read: ‘Vote for Dai Jones – your Bute Welsh Labour candidate‘.

We know W-B is also making inroads into Plaid Cymru. The Greens were always on side. But does it end there?

Maybe not.

TITBITS, THOUGHTS

In this section I’ll look at a few other items that have come my way and how they perhaps fit with what we already knew.

First, I’m told that Nigel Farage had a closed-door meeting in January with Windward Energy Ltd Chairman Steve Scrimshaw. So let’s have a statement from Reform on where it stands on ‘renewable energy’ and rising electricity prices.

More closed door negotiations preceded the decision by the Wales Pension Partnership to invest £68m (for starters?) in Windward-Bute. A source says that very influential in the ultimate decision was Cardiff Lib Dem councillor Rhys Taylor.

Taylor of course sits on the council’s Pensions Committee, but I bet you can’t guess where his day job is. Let me help . . .

So we see that Windward-Bute also has its claws into the Lib Dems.

Leaving Gwlad the only honest party left.

I’m told the investigations into Taylor and Aplin might result in a number of Senedd Members, MSPs and MPs being invited to ‘help police with their inquiries’.

Understandably, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), the main funders for W-B’s renewable energy projects, is said to be pissed off by the recent news and allegations of spying for China.

Which provides yet another link to ‘Welsh’ Labour. Through Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former Danish PM, her directorship of Vestas since 2019, and that company’s 25% stake in CIP.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt is the wife of Stephen Kinnock, MP for Aberavon Maesteg. He is of course the son of former Labour party leader now Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty in the County of Gwent, and the late Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead, long-time Member of the European Parliament.

Her seat on the Brussels gravy-train was taken by Derek Vaughan who, following Brexit, was given a non-job by Windward-Bute on its Welsh Advisory Board.

Kinnock the Younger’s constituency is home to Port Talbot steelworks, so recently and shamelessly allowed to die. Welcomed in certain circles because it reduces Wales’ output of some evil dreamed up by Greenhairs.

I’m going to throw out an idea that might sound outrageous, yet it’s plausible. Just think about it.

Millican, Steele and George all worked for real estate outfit Parabola, where Millican’s father Peter is head man. They all left Parabola towards the end of 2017. (Or that’s what we’re encouraged to believe.)

They had no experience in ‘renewables’; and to my knowledge they’ve still not erected a single turbine. Certainly not in Wales. But is this missing the point?

They now have sites designated, landowners signed up, planning applications submitted, politicians and others bought, financial backing for the projects arranged, and warehouses stacked to the gunwales with the wherewithal to complete the projects.

So if Windward-Bute only gets half or less of the planning consents applied for – even no planning approval at all – they could still sell up and make a massive profit. Especially if the anticipated crackdown on (recently) imported parts comes into play and the components they bought years ago rocket in price.

Maybe that was always the business model. Not actually building anything.

If nothing else, it’ll be a very lucrative fall-back position.

CONCLUSION

Windward-Bute has corrupted Welsh political and public life. And it was so predictable.

With a form of devolved government designed to fail. And with ‘progressive’ politicians too stupid and gullible to have made even a good model work.

Made worse by those same politicians seriously believing Wales alone could save a planet being destroyed by humans – and their farting cows!

Politicians believing that lobbyists and pressure groups should determine policies, and that they should be able to do so free from regulation or restraint.

Resulting in overlapping and incestuous circles in one relatively small city, circles of perhaps no more than two or three thousand people in total, damaging the lives of over three million people.

This shit-show was bound to attract the kinds of ‘developers’ we’ve seen over the past 27 years. With Windward-Bute perhaps the worst, the most pernicious example.

Windward-Bute already has the shadow of ‘China spying’ hanging over it, and the stain of buying political influence, but it doesn’t end there.

The West’s lemming-like rush over the cliff of ‘renewables’ isn’t just good news for China, on which we depend for everything from rare earth minerals to completed solar panels; it’s also welcomed in the oil-rich Gulf states because ‘renewables’ are also unreliables, and need back-up.

Some might think that a UK-based company or individuals enriching themselves from helping de-industrialise and impoverish the West is tantamount to treason.

And I would agree. For ‘renewables’ are a response to nothing but avarice.

♦ end ♦

© Royston Jones 2026

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Eifion

As usual Jac, an excellent bit of journalism! Bute’s method of business is rather similar to how the ‘deep state’ operate.

I’m afraid that Bute’s poison has reached many other bodies, than only our Welsh Government. They involve themselves with schools; young farmers clubs and agricultural shows – they even have influence in the gratest show of all… the Royal Welsh!

They target their interest with ready cash from their bulging war chest. Nothing less than opportunistic carpet baggers – of the highest order. Utter slime!

Jonathan Dean

I’m not sure it’s fair to say the North Sea is being closed down. There is a world of difference between no new drilling licenses and shut in all wells and cancel current drilling licenses

We have been importing gas from Norway for decades as the Norwegian reservoirs have far more gas than the U.K. reservoirs in the northern North Sea (“North Sea gas” of old was generally southern North Sea)

The U.K. North Sea reservoirs have been in decline since the 1990’s, one reason being the differing production strategies of U.K. and Norway.

U.K. reserves were often exploited to maximise short term production, often leaving now unrecoverable oil and gas in reservoir extremes. Norway has always produced to maximise recovery, often at lower production rates but leaving less in the ground. Norway would develop production hubs with distant reserves tied in but ultimately sharing assets

Overall, Norway has run its reservoirs for the long term benefit of Norway. The U.K. has allowed each company to do as it pleased

The U.K. sector of the North Sea is a mature basin and while new deposits will no doubt be found in years to come, drilling now or later will not make a huge difference. Both the oil and gas from U.K. or Norwegian sectors is traded on the same markets so costs the same. Increasing output from the U.K. and decreasing imports from Norway will have no influence on price or availability in the U.K.

Jonathan Dean

That’s not true at all. There is a new gas power station in planning at Connah’s Quay and others elsewhere in the U.K. There is nuclear being built or planned at Hinckley, Sizewell, Bridgend, Hartlepool,Wylfa and Oldbury

Jonathan Dean

Nuclear does take a long time. Just look at Hinckley. Bizarrely Reform U.K. are huge fans of nuclear

The U.K. has never used Russian gas as we have a direct pipeline from Norway and have done for decades

Mainland Europe did use Russian gas but it’s no cheaper than gas from anywhere else, it was just easy

Thatcher started to deindustrialise the U.K. and only 9% of our GDP is from making things, and has been similar for decades. Long before net zero became law

I know of many manufacturing companies that started the process of outsourcing to China in the 90’s, purely on cost grounds, nothing whatsoever to do with emissions. Just like Germany pushed manufacturing into Eastern Europe just after the wall came down. It’s just chasing cheaper labour rates

Jonathan Dean

Trump will bring the work out of China and into South and Central America which he can dominate. The only way they can compete on price is to bring the work to low cost countries

Whatever happened to free trade? Maggie would be appalled at such lefty protectionism. You’ll be giving the workers control over the means of production next

Jonathan Dean

I still don’t know what or who these so called “globalists” are

Jonathan Dean

You have a very vivid imagination

Jonathan Dean

Have you always thought this way?

Jonathan Dean

Thought so

Yes, still believe what I understand is the official narrative

No, don’t wear a mask as the virus is less common and the variants less serious

Have had it once

Have had all vaccinations

For us covid was a wonderful time. Incredibly peaceful, but then we are lucky

Wynne

Good source of information on the Covid global scam and globalist strategy in general.

https://biggeesblog.cymru/

David Smith

What conservative party of big or small C would raid the overdraft and shell out untold billions to pay people to sit on their arse and businesses to cease trading. It flies smack bang in the face of their raison d’etre. Either it was an enormous, global public health crisis or orders from above are paramount.

David Smith

A small firm I worked for went under as a consequence, and I stayed in touch with a couple of the bosses afterwards and got no wind of a takeover from Soros and co. </facetiousness>

The Tories like to claim they’re the party of small government but authoritarianism never goes away, it’s just reshaped to fit the agenda of the day. Small State Maggie wielded the force of the state when it suited, the old bag.

David Smith

The natural endgame for an unfettered free market, or so I thought.

Wynne
Dafis

CH issued a warning recently thatthey have problems dealing with a variety of website based transactions because of difficulties with commissioning or updating work. No doubt they too went out to market and picked some profit gouging ham fisted multi-national (like Fujitsu) who are now leaving their trademark inefficiency or loose ends for someone else to sort out. Were all those “free” lunches and trips to big sporting/cultural events worth it? Not to us the taxpayers but no doubt some of the fat cat senior execs who engaged in the selection process for contractors have moved on by now to rich pickings elsewhere. How many of these fiascos go undisclosed? It was only the malice shown to sub postmasters that got the PO exposed as a bunch of shitbags.

Dafis

Completely off topic but worth recording this quote from a Spectator message today –

Ireland’s Establishment has reimagined St Patrick’s Day as a celebration of multiculturalism, 

Have they gone completely nuts over there?

David Smith

Surely the common Celtic culture of the time and today disqualifies that notion? Also, If I’m not mistaken, reciprocally in the respective nationality law of the UK and Ireland, citizens of the other state are not considered foreigners.

David Smith

Plantation 2.0 – Black is the New Orange. Not just in Ireland either. I half reckon the twats in charge are foisting ‘multiculturalism’ and other universally disliked and unwanted ‘policies’ by design to stoke tensions and trigger an uprising for some reason. Perhaps to trigger a full-blown race war and thin the herd…

It has to be fucking galling when the cunts in the Senedd insist every council in Wales throws an LGBTQ Pride hoopla with all the expense involved, but local services people actually rely on are in the toilet. Granted shows of solidarity in that community served a purpose once upon a time when queer bashing was a far more popular pursuit, or in the days when homosexuality was criminalised. But today? Are they seriously that bastard stupid and out of touch with the real world?

David Smith

The idea of renewables, if only in the abstract, is a noble one – after all, the clue is in the name: non-renewables will eventually run out. Why we’re not throwing everything and the kitchen sink at cracking nuclear fusion, and in the meantime, throwing our lot in with fission (the ‘best of a bad bunch’), is the question.

The fact is extraction of fossil fuels is undoubtedly damaging to the environment, and pumping the shit they produce when burnt into the air we breathe is never going to end well, whether you believe in anthropogenic climate change or not. If the ‘anthropogenic’ were prepended as a rule, it’d save all parties to the debate the tedious and hackneyed opener of “Butbutbut… the planet has been warming naturally for millenia!” We forget that all of us have the same vested interest in looking after our one and only planet.

In these polarised times, nobody wants to lose the debate, consequences be damned. I honestly think many hardcore hippies would actually want to see the planet burn, to be proved right and be able to shove it in the face of the Capitalists, Big Oil, Donald Trump,et al. At the end of the day there must be at least something to it, all scientists can’t be grifters or easily conned, but I would rather be proven wrong and still be able to visit the Netherlands and not have to batten down my roof in hurricane season.

Jonathan Dean

I understand we are about to lead the world with a fusion plant planned in Lincolnshire

Fission, with which we did lead the world, once, will always struggle due to immense cost and lack of flexibility. Stations like Wylfa and Trawsfynydd got flexibility from their pumped storage stations (Dinorwig and Ffestiniog), later stations got flexibility from gas.

France, often held up as the ones to copy have far more hydro and pumped storage than the U.K. could ever have, and without the Alps, the U.K. could never replicate what they do

France is also integrated into the European grid (synchronous AC) while we connect to it by HVDC, so France’s near neighbours are easy to “dump power” on, increasing flexibility

And there will always be the issue of waste. The Telegraph reported that the future cost of managing all current waste exceeds the value of all electricity ever made by nuclear. Had we known that in the 1950’s we would never have started

David Smith

Is the apparent inflexibility an inherent flaw of nuclear generation or because of the grid setup, or both? The waste is sealed in concrete, buried and obviously monitored, I fail to see how that is so monstrously expensive. Fair enough, having it there for tens of thousands of years isn’t ideal but at least it’s contained so doesn’t persist as an environmental hazard or pollutant as long as it remains so.

Jonathan Dean

No thermal station is particularly flexible except gas CCGTs which just have a jet engine as the first stage. Coal was the same (hence Economy 7 was invented). Nuclear also has the issue where ramping up and down reduces reactor life and is less efficient in fuel use (so more waste). Also, virtually all the cost of nuclear is committed at the beginning of, so costs almost as much switched off as on. Therefore what nuclear we will have will be run flat out all the time

Waste is theoretically easy to deal with but we haven’t yet selected anywhere to bury it, so it’s all still just being stored, ready for when the geological disposal facility is available

David Smith

I wonder if Westminster will pick somewhere in Scotland, Wales or the North of England for the job – that might just push demands for independence (or federalism, in the case of NoE) to ‘critical’!

I’m betting that the ramping down mechanisms are far more ‘hair-trigger’ in nuclear than the others, for obvious reasons.

Jonathan Dean

I think the current favourite place is under the Irish Sea, accessed from Cumbria. Under the North Sea off Lincolnshire was considered but pretty sure that has been dropped now

I think Scottish planning law gives the ultimate decision to the Scottish Parliament, so unlikely there, and the critical thing is having the right geology which I don’t think Wales has (but I’m no geologist)

The issue with ramping up and down is temperature changes putting stress on the core. They can be shut down quite rapidly if necessary but it doesn’t do them any good

SMRs should have less of an issue as there is less thermal mass, but similar principles. And then SMRs have the issue that theoretically they produce more waste than big nuclear (just geometry) as they loose more neutrons so are less efficient in fuel use and produce more irradiated reactor material

But having said all that, there will be more nuclear, it’s just not a silver bullet to solve all energy needs. About 15 GW total with roughly a quarter of that on Anglesey

Dafis

You report that …. “Nigel Farage had a closed-door meeting in January with Windward Energy Ltd Chairman Steve Scrimshaw. So let’s have a statement from Reform on where it stands on ‘renewable energy’ and rising electricity prices.”

Reform’s rank and file membership may be mostly hostile to the Net Zero scam but the party’s leadership team are mostly “businessmen” of the City/banker/professions variety who are drawn to the prospect of big bucks and quite willing to ignore the folly and waste of Net Zero antics. I don’t expect much from that lot, indeed most likely to be a continuity of the uniparty shit show that we have suffered for the last 25+years. Failure is now seemingly built into the UK and Welsh political landscape with its politicians motivated more by filling their boots rather than achieving anything worthwhile for our communities.

Dafis

Oh, I agree with you on that. However my deeply suspicious and cynical nature prevents me from crediting them with sincerity in their declarations. I guess that I’m finished with almost all politicians as a sub species.

David Smith

Look up what the man has fallen for from pranksters. He got tricked into saying “Up the Ra” in a personalised video message. What British politician of any competence over the last 50 years doesn’t know what that means? Jesus Christ.

David Smith

I think that’s a given, I mean I very much doubt he’d drop such a clanger on purpose, especially as a politician of his particular stripe. But it’s either a humdinger of a blind spot, or he just isn’t as clever as he likes to portray. I look forward to the spiritual sequel statements from Our Nige, “Trans women are women” and “From the river to the sea”.

David Smith

Any politician of any stripe would be wise to not open themselves up on this particular avenue, and not sign up to a platform for custom video greetings better suited to entertainers.

Jonathan Dean

If we can believe this, Reform voters love renewables!

IMG_5713
Jonathan Dean

YouGov

Aren’t they owned by prominent Reform figure Nadhim Zahawi?

Or maybe the Reform voters were just confused?

Jonathan Dean

Don’t know but assumed it was one of the frequent YouGov polls they carry out. I get them daily in my inbox

Jonathan Dean

DESNZ present similar results as do NESO

The questions are broadly worded though

Jonathan Dean

Not at all. The DESNZ questions are all available on their website

Jonathan Dean

The truth is out there

David Smith

It does beg the question, by what mechanism would we acquire a better political class upon independence? The Seneddistas aren’t going to simply disappear. My reckoning is that a healthier democracy, full ‘buck-stopping-here’ accountability, and attendant increase in engagement and participation by the Welsh body politic will have a Darwinian effect and prune the dead wood.

David Smith

There is obvious debate to be had over the Trump Administration’s handling of the issue, but do-gooders and their buzzphrase “Nobody is illegal” don’t half practice sphincter speak. Obviously a person simply existing and living is doing nothing illegal, but crossing a border into a state in violation of its immigration laws is an illegal act, just like burglary or tresspass. I wonder how keen they’d be on the rights of the perp if they were the victim in such an incident.

David Smith

It’s ironic really that globalism is surely the ultimate expression and natural endpoint of the free market, and has produced probably the greatest wealth disparity since Feudal times – individual people worth more than countries. Goes to show, that the monaxial political spectrum is a gross simplification.

Today’s Tories, incumbent leadership taken over by a woman of recent African extraction from a guy of the Indian equivalent, would recoil with horror at the attitudes towards women, homosexuals and other races of the Old Labour working man sort from the 1970s.

This is an archetype reflected in the character Eddie Booth from the much-maligned sitcom Love Thy Neighbour – a dyed in the wool socialist and self-described comrade, who had some colourful preferred terms for his Trinidadian neighbours, as you may recall.

David Smith

Just throws into sharper relief how paradoxical and counterintuitive all this business can be. The ‘free’ market works best like you say, in plurality. But to guarantee such healthy competition we need antitrust legislation and government agencies to enact it. At which point, well it’s now a controlled and moderated market and therefore is it truly free? It kind of reminds me of the ‘this statement is false’ paradox.