The fate of BHS and the existential threat to the great British high street

For the 11,000 members of staff who are almost certainly out of jobs, the news that the battle to save BHS has ended in failure will have come as little surprise. But it is devastating news nevertheless, threatening their livelihoods and filling their families with a fresh anxiety – and also, most probably, renewed anger: the biggest retail collapse in Britain since Woolworths appears to have been caused in part by structural forces, and in part by horrific corporate mismanagement.

When Sir Philip Green sold BHS last year to Dominic Chappell, an ex-bankrupt and former racing driver with no retail experience, he couldn’t have foreseen its collapse 13 months later, leaving a pension deficit that will be absorbed by an official rescue fund, at an estimated cost of £275m. That doesn’t stop it being a dastardly and irresponsible decision, though two parliamentary inquiries currently underway will soon give a more definitive verdict.

The Pensions Regulator, meanwhile, is looking at whether Sir Philip’s multi-billion personal fortune might be called upon to help out with that pension deficit.

The awful fate of BHS marks the intersection of corporate failure on a mass scale with the existential threat to Britain’s high street. Something can be done about the former.

Strict regulation of such massive sales, proper scrutiny of business practice and the severe application of legal penalties on those found guilty of malpractice can begin to right some of these wrongs and deter future misbehaviour, even if it can’t do much for those out of a job.

The threat to Britain’s high streets from internet retail, however, is not going away, nor is it likely to ease up. Online shopping is growing ever more popular, and will continue to. Even if every Sir Philip Green and Dominic Chappell in Britain’s boardrooms were replaced by an angel, the sad demise of BHS will not be the last of its kind.