Green pledges to look after former BHS workers

Topshop owner Sir Philip Green promised not to “run away” from the plight of BHS workers facing cuts to their retirement incomes, during a rancorous London parliamentary hearing into the failure of the high street chain that made him a billionaire.

Thousands of people who worked at BHS face cuts to their pensions after the chain collapsed in April, 13 months after Dominic Chappell, a former bankrupt, bought it for £1. However, Sir Philip insisted the £571 million unfunded liability in the pension scheme was a “resolvable” problem.

“I want to give an assurance to the 20,000 [BHS] pensioners that I am there to sort this, in the correct way,” he said.

Sir Philip said he had been in touch with regulators, trustees and the Pension Protection Fund – but all three groups said they had yet to receive a concrete offer.

“[It is] news to me that we are going to get a proposal,” said Chris Martin, chairman of the BHS pension trustees. “But it certainly would be welcome if it helped members get better benefits than they would otherwise.”

Pensions experts said it would cost more than £100 million to plug the gap in the scheme even if members could be persuaded to accept lower benefits.

Sir Philip indicated that he would revive a 2014 proposal that would have reduced the pension deficit by offering thousands of workers with small pension entitlements the chance to swap a distant trickle of retirement income for an immediate lump of cash. He gave no indication of how much money he was prepared to pay to help rescue the scheme. The pledge punctuated an often ill-tempered hearing, in which Sir Philip countered questions with questions, repeatedly demanded that MPs allow him time for lengthy statements, and sought to deflect responsibility for the corporate disintegration that followed his decision to sell BHS.

Occasionally Sir Philip appeared to lose his cool, but mostly the billionaire commanded the agenda. Sir Philip acknowledged it had been a mistake to sell BHS to Mr Chappell. But he sought to paint himself as a diligent businessman who had made an understandable and honest error.

“I’m not here to cast blame,” the tycoon said. “But I think some people that took up certain roles in this have got something to account for.”

He complained that law firm Olswang was “knee-deep in this transaction from day one”. Grant Thornton, the professional services group, also came in for criticism, along with the Goldman Sachs bankers who were asked to vet Mr Chappell.

Goldman says it received no fees from the deal and was not paid to offer advice, although three of its top bankers offered informal “observations” about Mr Chappell’s suitability as a buyer.

Sir Philip also confronted questions about the tax benefits of his wife’s Monaco residency, which exempts her from paying UK tax on interest and dividend income. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016