Please Do Not

Undermine

The Layman

Honourable Rachel Reeves

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Assalam o Alleyykum

[Peace Be Upon You]

Hon. R Reeves! As below is the news in respect of investigation report by the media:

MPs to investigate £80m P&H pension black hole after thousands of staff are laid off weeks before Christmas

 P&H executives received almost £70m in dividends from 2009 to 2016

Payments of at least £8.2m a year continued even as losses at the company rose

 A Change.org petition attracted 7000 signatures in one day demanding an investigation into firm's collapse

By MATT OLIVER

Updated: 08:59, 4 December 2017

The collapse of Palmer & Harvey is to be investigated by MPs as concern mounts about a huge pension fund deficit.

Frank Field, chairman of the Commons Work and Pensions Committee, said he was also ‘massively concerned’ by news that bosses received millions of pounds from the wholesaler as losses grew.

He said the committee would look into the matter as part of a wider probe into those ‘raiding’ firms that then need rescuing.

High life: The £4m home of Christopher Adams

Inset: Christopher Etherington

His comments came after thousands of staff were laid off by P&H weeks before Christmas, with trustees of its pension scheme warning the Pension Protection Fund of an estimated £80 million black hole.

Even if the fund steps in to rescue the scheme, thousands of former staff face having their nest eggs reduced.

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that a small group of P&H executives received almost £70 million in dividends from 2009 to 2016 after a debt-fuelled management buyout.

The payments – of at least £8.2 million a year – continued even as losses at the company rose.

Last night, Field said: ‘I’m massively concerned about this. It is not just a one-off.

‘We are beginning to see a pattern of people raiding companies, then leaving them to be rescued by the Pension Protection Fund.

‘As a committee, we have got to propose to Government how we can exercise some clawback when it looks as though stewards of a company have fleeced it for their own benefit and left pensioners to face increasing cuts.

‘Public opinion on this has hardened – people want the Commons to act. It is not just pensioners who have been affected, people’s jobs have gone as well. It’s a doubly unforgivable act by people who have a duty of ownership.

‘You should not have the advantages and wealth that come from a successful business if you have actually failed that business.’ Struggling P&H, which is based in Hove, East Sussex, had been kept afloat by the tobacco companies that supplied it as bosses tried to negotiate a rescue deal.

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Frank Field: Expressed concern after it was revealed that P&H may have £80m pension deficit

Last week, however, it ran out of cash and administrators were called in – leading to an immediate decision to shed 2,500 staff.

Chief executive Tony Reed said he was ‘dreadfully sorry’.

But questions are being asked about why the firm continued to pay vast sums in dividends to shareholders even as it struggled.

Latest accounts show that P&H, the fifth-biggest private firm in the UK, paid £8.2 million to preference shareholders, despite losing £17.3 million in the year to April 2016.

It had already paid them the same amount the year before, despite an £8.5m loss.

The payouts began after the firm’s structure changed following a management buyout in 2008 that valued it at £345 million, led by former chairman Christopher Adams, 65, and former chief executive Christopher Etherington, 64.

Some of the directors, including Etherington, funded their share purchases using interest-free loans from P&H’s staff benefit trust.

P&H had to pay further millions for bank interest payments, refinancing and other fees related to the 2008 buyout.

But administrators will be unable to access millions of pounds in a ring-fenced firm, Build true, that was set up to provide security to preference and dividend shareholders who want to redeem their holdings. It had £42 million last year, according to accounts.

A Change.org petition set up on Saturday to call for an investigation into the firm’s collapse had nearly 7,000 signatures last night.

Administrators at PwC, who are acting for P&H, did not respond to requests for comment last night.

 Life of luxury as firm failed

Ex-chairman Christopher Adams, 65, and former chief executive Christopher Etherington, 64, received millions from the failing firm.

Adams, who resigned in 2013, lived in luxury while at the firm, owning a Grade II listed, ten-bedroom rectory in East Hoathly, East Sussex. The £4m Georgian property includes a coach house, swimming pool and gardener’s cottage.

Etherington quit this April and set up a firm in Chichester, West Sussex, called Chris Etherington Ltd, along with Caroline Etherington, 57. Neither the Etheringtons nor Adams could be reached for comments.

OBSERVATIONS

Hon. R Reeves! In short, the essence of the news by the media is to the effect that a big business enterprise had collapsed by the Abuse of Power by the Management’s Greed for ‘Wealth’ and affected and impacted:

·                  more or less 3000 employee’s families financially, psychologically, and psychiatrically,

·                  suppliers of goods and services where they will have to write off their debts,

·                  medium and small size suppliers may have to go in liquidation or bankruptcy

·                  treasury not receiving any income tax revenue

·                  increase in budget deficit as claims will be made for social benefits,

·                  etc., etc.,

Hon. R Reeves! The ‘Greedy’ management team does not realise the ‘Gearing’ effect and impact of their Abuse of Power.

Hon. R Reeves! With due respect, you did not realise the ‘Gearing’ effect and impact of Axing nearly 11 million pensioners, all of a sudden cutting Winter Fuel Allowance and you turned ‘Blind Eye’ to the protests and ‘Deaf Ear’ to the proposals made by social organisation e.g. Age UK. So what is the difference between Business tycoon and the Law Maker?

Hon. R Reeves! Alhamdu’lillah! The representations by the project: Call for Peace is offering you an opportunity to compensate pensioners on basic pension and have no other income, in March 2025 budget. The time may be short as the March 2025 budget appeared to have been drafted where there does not appear to be any compensation for the pensioners on basic pension, a Special Bill need to be drafted and debated and passed unanimously by all the political parties.

Hon. R Reeves! Let us see if the Public Authorities listen which the former Prime Minister Tony Blair proclaimed:

We are the Party of individuals.

We are not the Masters. People are the Masters.

We are the Servants. We listen to the people.

 

May Allah be with You

Please Remember in Dua’as

Wass’a’lam

Naseer Aziz

Principal Call for Peace

 

Messages to Look for Peace

 

PS:

Sponsorship

Hon. R Reeves! Please read the Post: Sponsorship in the Navigation Bar as to why it is needed to keep conveying the Messages to Look for Peace until the Day of Resurrection and how it will be expended until the Day of Resurrection.

Wass’a’lam

 

PS:

 

Hon. R Reeves!  If after reading the representations of the project: Call for Peace, the Public Authorities are not ready to Sponsor Messages to Look for Peace, then it is clear like Day Light that they are Pretending to Look for Peace, but they do not like Peace to Prevail.