Green assets could be seized to help plug BHS pension hole - regulator

Philip Green’s assets could be seized by the courts if he did not comply with legal demands to cover the £571m deficit in the BHS pension scheme, the chief executive of the Pensions Regulator (TPR) told MPs on Wednesday.

Lesley Titcomb told parliament's work and pensions select committee that it would be down to court to determine how to raise funds from Green, including possible seizure of assets.

“If we are talking about a contribution notice, that creates a normal legally enforceable debt to the scheme and it would then be the scheme trustees or the PPF (the Pension Protection Fund) who, with our full support in any way, shape or form we could offer, would seek to recover that debt through the courts. The courts would determine how that would be achieved,” Titcomb said

She was responding to queries from committee chairman Frank Field, who has been waging a ferocious war of words with Green over the fund deficit.

In a letter to Titcomb, Field queried whether the "acquiring assets other than cash" from Green was possible. Green declined to comment on Field's comments when contacted by Digital Look.

The regulator has launched enforcement action against Green and other former owners of BHS after failing to agree a deal over the pension scheme which has 20,000 members. Tom McPhail, head of retirement policy at financial advisers Hargreaves Lansdown, said Green's behaviour had pushed the regulator into its current form of action.

“Many people will find the prospect of the bailiffs seizing Sir Philip’s yacht peculiarly appealing. His failure to offer the regulator a comprehensive and credible deal on the BHS pension scheme six months on from his promise to ‘sort it out’ has left no option but to pursue legal enforcement," he said in a statement.

"The process will take many months yet though and there is always the possibility that he will yet make an acceptable offer; just possibly the prospect of the bailiffs on the gangplank will focus his mind. In the meantime, the scheme members continue to enjoy the security of the PPF lifeboat scheme, with the hope that a better deal may eventually be secured on their behalf.”

BHS collapsed earlier this year and is now being liquidated. Green sold the chain in 2015 to serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell for £1. Green attracted sever criticism for taking delivery of a £100m luxury boat as 11,000 staff lost their jobs.

The regulator has sent warning notices of enforcement action to Green, his Arcadia retail group and Chappell.

The regulator said that after a “complex investigation” and months of talks with Green about a rescue deal for the pension scheme it was sending warning notices to the billionaire tycoon, Chappell and their companies, the Guardian reported.

Titcomb said it was yet to receive “sufficiently credible and comprehensive offer” to bail out the BHS pension scheme, which has more than 20,000 members, despite Green pledging to fix the problems facing it.

Green disputed the claim, saying he had made a “credible and substantial proposal” and shown he had cash available to support the pension scheme.

MPs last month voted to strip Green of his knighthood for his role in BHS' collapse, although the formal decision has to be taken by the Honours Forfeiture Committee.