Green claims he invested £421m in BHS over 15 years

Retail tycoon Philip Green said he put £421m into collapsed High Street chain BHS during his 15 year ownership.

Green outlined the figure in a letter to a parliamentary inquiry which is looking at the demise of the department store which is being wound up after falling into administration with a £571m pension fund deficit with 11,000 jobs at risk.

The letter was published before publication of a joint report by the Business and Work & Pensions all-party committees, which is expected to criticise Green and the sale of BHS to three-time bankrupt Dominic Chappell for £1 in 2015.

Green has also come under fire for the money he took from BHS in dividends at a time when the pension fund deficit was growing.

Green also said he offered to add £5m to the £10m offered by Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley to buy BHS as a going concern. The bid was rejected by the administrators.

He said this information “can now put an end to the suggestion that I tried to block a sale of the business. In fact I tried to support a sale”.

In a separate letter to the inquiry from Edward Paladorio, a former director of Chappell's Retail Acquisitions Ltd, responded to the committees query on why the company had proceeded with the BHS purchase without guarantees on the pension fund deficit.

“Sir Philip Green emphasised on more than one occasion in meetings that I and others attended that his word was his bond.”