MP meets House of Fraser boss

Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski met with Frank Slevin, chairman of the chain, in the House of Commons yesterday.

He said his main concern was the employees of Shrewsbury's House of Fraser.

"A number of MPs have met with the chairman in rather subdued circumstances," he said.

"I wanted to question the chairman as to what specific help and support the company will be giving to employees at the Shrewsbury branch to find either alternative jobs within the company or to help them to find alternative jobs in the same sectors in other companies.

"Obviously clearly there have been concerns about House of Fraser and its business model for many years and they have been borrowing more money.

"They have lost a great number of customers to people who are selling goods and services online and much cheaper.

"My main concern was what support would be given to these employees going forward to find alternative jobs."

Mr Kawczynski said discussions are ongoing between landlords of the buildings and House of Fraser.

"Landlords' rates are quite high and are one of the big contributory costs in certain cases, and if the landlords want to keep House of Fraser and don't want to risk leaving the building empty, then they could come forward with an alternative package then that's something that House of Fraser wouldn't rule out, so that's the interesting thing," he added.

"That's one thing that I took away from the meeting.

"This is just the start of discussions with them, he's promised to get back in touch as this was just an introductory meeting."

It was revealed earlier this month that Shrewsbury and Telford's House of Fraser stores face closure after the chain revealed plans to axe more than half its 59 stores, affecting more than 200 workers in Shropshire.

The drastic plan will also see branches closed in Wolverhampton and Birmingham in a bid to rescue the rest of the struggling business.

It will mean more than 1,100 people losing their jobs across the West Midlands and will affect about 6,000 workers nationwide.

A total of 150 people are employed in Telford, 83 in Shrewsbury, 279 at Beatties in Wolverhampton and 688 in Birmingham.

A total of 31 stores are being shut across the country, with the closures expected to start in January next year.