The Pension Regulator has published its report into the sale of the firm after concerns about the future of the pension scheme when the company collapsed last year, which affected 11,000 jobs and around 19,000 pension scheme members.

Sir Philip owned BHS for 15 years before selling it for £1 to former bankrupt Dominic Chappell in 2015. In February Sir Phillip agreed to pay £363 million in an attempt to rescue the pension scheme.

The report said: "We argued that the main purpose of the sale was to postpone BHS' insolvency to prevent a liability to the schemes falling due while it was part of the Taveta group of companies ultimately owned by the Green family."

Dave Gill - Usdaw National Officer says: “We welcome the publication of the Regulatory Intervention Report by the Pension Regulator regarding BHS pensions. It is important that there is transparency and that lessons are learned from this debacle.

“The knock on effect of Sir Philip’s actions have had a devastating impact on the hard working and loyal employees who lost their jobs and most of the pension scheme members will not now receive the pension they were promised.

“Whilst the Pension Regulator has been successful in striking a deal with Sir Philip Green, the fact remains that the full buy out cost to secure 100% of members’ benefits has not been met. There is still a lot of uncertainty for members and hopefully this will be addressed over the coming months when they receive more information about their options.

“It is important that the Regulator continues to review and improve its processes to prevent this situation arising again, however, this will be of little comfort to the thousands of BHS workers who have lost their livelihoods and are facing a reduction to their income in their retirement.”

Notes for editors:

Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fourth biggest trade union with nearly 430,000 members. Membership has increased by more than 20% in the decade. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the Union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.

For Usdaw press releases visit: www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion