Sir Philip Green agreed to pay £363m to BHS pension scheme

Sir Philip Green agreed with the Pension regulator to help fill the failed retailer’s pension black hole, with a £363m payment to the BHS pension scheme.

Under the deal with the Pensions Regulator, former BJS workers will get the same starting pension that they were originally promised, without the protection against inflation.

Business Committee chairman Ian Wright and Work and Pensions Select Committee Chairman Labour MP Frank Field led the questioning of Sir Philip over the sale of the chain and its eventual collapse. Philip Green owned BHS for 15 years before selling it for £1 to former bankrupt Dominic Chappell.

Mr Wright although welcomed the pensions deal but said it “doesn’t wipe the stains from his reputation clean” and the “devil is in the detail”.

“It sends out a very clear and powerful message that you might try to sell a business on the cheap because you don’t want to deal with the pension deficit, but we’ll come after you and we’ll make you pay big money in order to safeguard the interests of pensioners and that can only be a good thing”, Frank Field said.

Under the deal the Pensions Regulator said the new scheme offered benefits of around 88% of the value of their full BHS scheme, with most of the 19, 000 pension scheme members better off, then if they had to remain with the Pension Protection Fund, however 9, 000 people who could take the cash lump sum would be worse off.

The Pension regulator also said anti-avoidance enforcement action against Sir Philip and his companies will cease in light of the settlement, but the action continues in respect of Mr Chappell and his firm, Retail Acquisitions.

An online petition calling for Sir Philip to be stripped of his knighthood has attracted over 170, 000 signatures.