Green facing new pension row over plot to cut funding

Tycoon plans to halve payments to plug £550m black hole

SiR Philip Green is seeking to slash his annual contributions into the arcadia staff pension fund by half, according to reports.

the tycoon is said to be preparing to halve payments into the fund to £25m a year as he presses ahead with a major cost-cutting drive that will involve a raft of store closures.

any such move on his part would spark outrage after he came under heavy fire for his treatment of the bHS pension fund which led to calls for him to be stripped of his knighthood.

in 2016, a year after 67-year-old Green had sold bHS to serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell, it crashed into administration, leaving 11,000 staff jobless and a £571m black hole in the company’s retirement fund.

Green’s latest retail troubles have sparked concerns over the future of arcadia’s pension scheme. the deficit in the fund is thought to have swelled to as much as £550m.

arcadia owns topshop, burton, Dorothy Perkins, evans, Miss Selfridge and Wallis and has 570 stores and hundreds of concessions, employing 18,000 staff.

Following pressure from MPs, in 2017 Green ( picturedwithmodelKateMoss) agreed to make a yearly payment of £50m in order to make good the shortfall. but he is now set to row back on this pledge by slashing contributions to £25m, according to Sky news.

the Pensions Regulator is in talks with the pension fund trustees, who have a duty to protect the staff and pensioners. Frank Field MP, chairman of the work and pensions committee, said: ‘When things are going well, Sir Philip Green and his family take mega-dividends out of the company; when things are not going well, the workers have to pay.’

Green is understood to be planning a controversial insolvency procedure called a company voluntary agreement which will allow arcadia to secure rent reductions from landlords and shut stores. Some of its brands, such as topshop and Miss Selfridge, have struggled to attract younger shoppers in recent years as fashionistas flock online to the likes of asos and boohoo. topshop and topman ran up a loss of nearly £ 10.9m in the year to august 2017, down from a profit of £59m a year earlier.

One source said: ‘With the company’s current financial structure, it would be lucky to stay solvent for a couple of years.’ it has been tumultuous time for Green, who has recently come under fire amid allegations of sexism, racism and bullying towards staff, all of which he denies.

One of Sir Philip’s closest business associates, baroness brady, resigned as chairman of arcadia’s parent company taveta in the wake of the allegations.

Calls for him to be stripped of his knighthood began after he sold bHS to Chappell for just £1 in 2015. Green injected £363m into bHS’s pension fund in 2017, and has always denied he was at fault for the chain’s downfall.

He said last year: ‘Oh, i’m sorry i was able to write a cheque for £363m and carry on living a normal life.

‘i believe i behaved properly, like i said i would.’

arcadia, Green and the Pensions Regulator declined to comment.