Mike Ashley has said that Debenhams needs to consider shedding stores using a company voluntary arrangement and should work more closely with the rival he owns, House of Fraser.
In comments that will do little to dispel speculation that the billionaire founder of Sports Direct wants eventually to merge House of Fraser with Debenhams, he said that the latter was struggling because of the weight of its rent bill.
Speaking on Ian King Live on Sky News after an appearance in parliament yesterday, Mr Ashley said that Debenhams’ “rents are wrong. I think they are 50% above where they should be.”
According to the Telegraph, Ashley wants to see a 20% tax levied on online sales and prison sentences for executives who consistently “fiddle” their way out of paying the levy, as part of his plan to save the country’s “dying” high streets.
Ashley told politicians on the Housing, Communities and Local Government committee that most high streets are beyond help.
“The mainstream high streets are already dead. They can’t survive, the patient is dead,” he said, comparing the traditional town centre to a dead body at the bottom of a swimming pool.
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