A British retail magnate could be stripped of his knighthood following the release of a blistering parliamentary report on the collapse of department store BHS.
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MPs said that Green and others “got rich” from BHS in a pretty hard-hitting report, saying that the business mogul extracted huge sums of money from the company, and left it on “life support”.
The report also concludes that Green now has a responsibility to help find the funds to reimburse BHS workers and pension holders of the money that they are owed (of whom there is an estimated 20,000), something Green agreed to when he appeared in person before the committee last month. The disposal of BHS was made one hundred per cent in good faith and I still believe that we provided Retail Acquisitions and Mr Chappell with the appropriate finance (c. £200m of cash and assets) to take the business forward.
When a scheme falls on the PPF, members who have yet to retire are hit with a 10% cut to their pension. Green is branded the “unacceptable face of capitalism”.
The report was particularly damming of Lord Grabiner QC, the non-executive chairman of the Taveta group – a holding company owned by Sir Philip’s wife Lady Tina Green. Today’s report accuses him of attempting to lay the blame for the ultimate closure of BHS (a year after he sold it) on others, in addition to overlooking Chappell’s “lack of experience”.
It is possible that Theresa May will seek to make an example of the businessman, who has yet to respond to any of the criticism leveled at him.
The business was sold with a £571 million (NZ$1billion plus) hole in its pension fund, which if not filled will leave 20,000 pensioners facing significant cuts to their income.
Although his family had accrued “incredible wealth” during its early, profitable years of owning BHS-while paying little in tax-Sir Philip had failed to invest in the company and refused to address the “substantial and unsustainable deficit” in the pension fund.
Mr Field said he would not apologise.
BHS went into administration in April, leaving a pensions deficit of £571m.
“She has already set out that we need to tackle corporate irresponsibility, reforming capitalism so that it works for everyone, not just the privileged few, that that means in the long run doing more to prevent irresponsible and reckless behaviour”.
Robert Maxwell, siphoned off millions of pounds from the pension scheme at the Mirror Group.
Topshop tycoon Green is working with the pensions regulator to achieve an outcome. Maxwell didn’t have it in his power. When the music stopped, he had no money.
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David Gill, national officer of shopworkers’ union Usdaw, said: “The consequences of actions by a handful of people in the running of BHS are now being felt by the 11,000 hard-working, dedicated and loyal staff”.
