Review of the Papers, Monday 02 July

Government

• Gordon Brown made a decisive break with Tony Blair's "sofa government" yesterday as he promised that the Cabinet would in future be involved in decision-making. In a noticeable dig at his predecessor's informal style of conducting the business of government, the new Prime Minister said that at his first full Cabinet meeting on Friday there was a round table discussion in which all ministers expressed their views. "We had a very long discussion at the first Cabinet about the constitution, which involved every single member of the Cabinet," Mr Brown told BBC's Sunday AM programme. "This is not what some people have called 'sofa government'. It is Cabinet government and the Cabinet ministers have got to be directly involved in decisions." As part of his efforts to restore trust in politics and move on from the Blair regime, Mr Brown appears determined to raise the profile of both the Cabinet and Parliament, both of which were sidelined under his predecessor. Traditionally, British governments formulate policy collectively in the Cabinet and take collective responsibility if it goes wrong. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/02/nbrown202.xml
• Women are being forced to become stay-at-home mothers because the cost of child care means it is not worth going back to work, a survey has revealed. Almost three quarters of mothers say they wanted to go back to work after maternity leave but only a quarter did. More than 26 per cent did not go back until their children had started school. And although 38 per cent stayed at home because they wanted to spend more time with their children, one in five blamed the cost of child care, saying that by the time they had paid the fees, they had hardly any wages left. However, more than half of the 4,000 mothers surveyed for market research company www.onepoll.com said they would have loved to go back to work if the cost of child care was not an issue. A quarter of mothers manage work thanks to help from family, with 30 per cent saying grandparents look after the children. Seven per cent also get financial aid from the grandparents. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/02/nprices202.xml
• Patricia Hewitt wrote to Gordon Brown on her final day as health secretary last week, criticising the NHS but advising against any changes in policy. Leaked correspondence revealed yesterday that she said the NHS remained a "paternalistic" service which too often served the "tribal" interests of doctors and managers instead of patients' needs. In a letter seen by the Guardian, she called for changes in rules on competition between NHS hospitals to stop them undertaking "unnecessary work to protect their income". She warned Mr Brown that he would cause despair throughout the NHS in England if he embarked on further reorganisation of health authorities and trusts. Ms Hewitt did not recant on any reform she had introduced since becoming health secretary in 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/story/0,,2116183,00.html
• Millions of savers have been "robbed" of more than £9 billion in only eight years, according to a study. Those who have lost out include investors, charities and non-taxpayers. An estimated three million investors in personal equity plans (Peps) and equity-based individual savings accounts (Isas) have lost an average of £2,000 each - £6 billion in total - and charities have lost a further £3 billion because of tax changes. The figures, calculated for The Times by the accountant Grant Thornton, show the full impact of the decision to remove investors' and charities' ability to reclaim dividend tax credits. Until 1999 investors could reclaim 20 per cent of the tax that they were due to pay on dividends generated from equity investments within Peps. That year, Gordon Brown, when he was Chancellor, replaced Peps with Isas and halved the benefit, allowing investors to reclaim a maximum of 10 per cent. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/money/tax/article2013424.ece
• As Britain tried to cope with a fresh deluge of rain yesterday, Baroness Young, the head of the embattled Environment Agency, has admitted that her £500m budget is too small to cope with the extreme flooding that has put parts of Yorkshire and the West of England under water. She has put in a bid for at least an extra £150m but has conceded that experts say £250m is needed to bring Britain's flood defences to the level that could hold back floods that have left five people dead and thousands with deluged homes. "There are some areas where we could ... provide very cost-effective flood defences but there is simply inadequate funding in the budget," she said. "For the future with increasing climate change, we do need substantial additional funding." Andy Burnham, the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury, is now under pressure to reopen the budget for flood defences fixed by his predecessor, Stephen Timms, for the Comprehensive Spending Review in the autumn. The flooding also puts a big question mark over the Government's drive for more affordable housing which may lead to an increase in building on flood plains. http://environment.independent.co.uk/article2727873.ece
• Five times more immigrants are given social housing than previously claimed, the Government has admitted. Just weeks ago ministers insisted only one per cent of social housing is given to immigrants, in an attempt to quell widespread fears that they are treated better by local authorities than people born in Britain. But after an investigation by ITV's Tonight With Trevor McDonald programme, the Government has admitted that 200,000 of Britain's social homes - five per cent of the total - were given to immigrants last year. There is a waiting list of 1.5 million for the four million social houses in Britain. Priority for houses is given to those most in need. Immigrant families cannot automatically be put to the top of the queue, but often fall into needy groups by being homeless or living in overcrowded accommodation. The Government's original figures were published on May 21 in the midst of a controversy surrounding an article by Margaret Hodge, then the industry minister, claiming British families had more right to social housing than new migrants. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/02/nmigrant102.xml
• A-level students will have to score at least 90 per cent to be awarded the new A* grade, ministers have ruled. The new grade will be introduced in an attempt to make A levels more stretching. Pass rates have risen every year for the past 23 years. Last year one teenager in ten achieved three A grades at A level, prompting universities to complain that they could not identify the best candidates. As a result, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) recommended this year in a letter to Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary at the time, that the A* grade should go only to students who get 90 per cent. An A grade is awarded for 80 per cent. The only marks that would count towards the new grade would be those for A2, the second-year course that follows first-year AS levels. "This approach ensures that the A* will recognise high achievement on stretch and challenge at A2 and will not encourage resitting of AS units," said Ken Boston, the chief executive of the QCA. Exam boards will try the new arrangements this year. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life-and-style/education/article2013406.ece
• Babies born in the summer are at least 20 per cent less likely than those born in winter to go to university, research suggests. An analysis of university admission by month of birth indicates that 10,000 young people each year fail to go to university because they were born late in the school year. Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said that although it had long been known that summer babies, who were the youngest in their class, tended to perform less well at school than winter babies it had long been assumed that the summer babies "caught up" with their peers by their teens. Figures from the Higher Education Funding Council for England suggest that this is not the case. Boys born in August are 25 per cent less likely to go to university than those born in September. Girls born in August are 20 per cent less likely to attend than those born in September. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life-and-style/education/article2013397.ece