Philip Green should compensate BHS pensioners - former PPF chief

Former BHS owner Philip Green should write a cheque to compensate the collapsed company's pensioners and “say sorry”, said the former head of the Pension Protection Fund.

Lady Barbara Judge told the BBC the Pensions Regulator needed more powers to prevent a recurrance of what happened at the High Street chain, which collapsed in April with a £571m pension fund deficit.

Green sold the store chain for £1 last year but it failed under the ownership of Retail Acquisitions Ltd, controlled by Dominic Chappell, and is now being wound up with the loss of 11,000 jobs.

"He should be writing a cheque and saying 'I'm sorry'," Judge said.

"My proposal is that the Pensions Regulator or some other agency be set up, like the Competition and Markets Authority, [so] that every time a corporate transaction of a certain size takes place with a pension fund of a certain size... a filing would be made by the parties it interested."

"They would say this is the deal... and this is what we are going to do for our pensioners.”

"Under my scenario we would have a pensions regulator that looked at every pension fund in the country and then had an obligation to talk to those pension funds about what they were doing."

Her comments on Green echo those of Frank Field MP, who co-chaired the parliamentary inquiry into BHS.

Under-fire Green was slammed in the inquiry's report that criticised him and others involved in the collapse as being the “unacceptable face of capitalism”.

Retired race driver Chappell was also panned in the report from the Work and Pensions and Business select committees.

Inquiry co-chair MP Frank Field said Green should make out a cheque for “at least” £571m, after the report cited Green’s failure to sort out a £571m pensions deficit as a primary catalyst for the chain’s collapse.

Criticism was also directed at the handling of the business’s sale to Chappell, who is a former bankrupt and had no experience in retail prior to BHS.

“[He] hurriedly sold to a manifestly unsuitable buyer,” the report said of Green’s conduct when flogging BHS off to Chappell for a nominal £1 last year.

Around 20,000 people are said to be eligible for a BHS pension, with the Pension Protection Fund set to take a £271m loss as a result.

Reportedly, Green has privately spoken of his willingness to make a contribution to the pension deficit, but he has remained staunchly quiet over the collapse of BHS with the exception of his appearance before MPs.

Several firms were also named as playing roles leading to the collapse of BHS and its pension fund, including Goldman Sachs, law firm Olswang and accountants Grant Thornton.

Employees have been working their last days at BHS stores across Britain in recent weeks, with stores closing as stock is exhausted.

Field has repeatedly asked Green to "write a cheque" to sort out the pension fund in an increasingly bitter war of words with the tycoon. He has accused the businessman of "displacement therapy" and said he had to "face up to the evil he has done in destroying BHS".

Green hit back by saying Field had tried to create a "false narrative" and that progress was being made in addressing the pension deficit.