BHS scandal puts focus on the great and the good

MPs have been scathing of the management at the UK retail chain once owned by Philip Green. The affair shows that corporate governance remains weak, says Kyran Fitzgerald. 

Philip Green, owner of Arcadia Group, has been slammed in a hard-hitting report into the collapse of British Home Stores. The report was issued by a committee of British parliamentarians. The BHS saga is a sorry one.

The 80-year-old business collapsed into administration, last April, putting at risk the futures of 164 stores, 11,000 employees and 20,000 pensioners. The stores have nearly all closed, leaving an emptiness on UK high streets last witnessed following the collapse of the Woolworths chain, in 2009.