Arcadia owner, Tina Green, has agreed to bring forward a payment of £50m for the collapsed firm’s pension scheme from September 2021 to within the next 10 days.

Arcadia, whose shops include Topshop, Burton and Dorothy Perkins, fell into administration on Monday with an estimated pension deficit of £350m.

Green, who is married to Philip Green, had agreed to pay a total of £100m into the pension scheme as part of a £385m package agreed with The Pensions Regulator (TPR) in 2019.

She has already paid the first two instalments of £25m each and will now pay the remaining £50m.

The company’s scheme is likely to enter the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), with more than 9,000 members affected.

A company statement on behalf of Green read: “Last year Lady Green committed to paying £100m into the company’s pension scheme in three instalments.

“Two instalments of the amount of £25m each as agreed has already been paid, the third and final instalment of £50m was not due to be paid until September 2021.

“Lady Green is going to bring this payment forward to be paid in the next seven to 10 days to complete the £100m commitment of payment.”

On Tuesday 1 December, Business Secretary, Alok Sharma, wrote to the Insolvency Service, asking it, in its investigation into the business’ collapse, to look at whether any action by Arcadia directors had caused detriment to creditors or the firm’s pension scheme.

Meanwhile, the previous day, Work and Pensions Committee chair, Stephen Timms, wrote to TPR asking how the firm’s collapse will affect the rescue package agreed in 2019. He also called on the Green family to plug the company scheme’s deficit.

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