Review of the Papers, Tuesday 24 July

Government

• Drunken yobs are turning town centres into "no-go areas" after dark, often behaving like "an occupying army loose in the streets", a leading MP says today. Edward Leigh, the Tory chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, says "no civilised country" should have to put up with the activities of a hooligan minority. In a report today, the committee says the Government's much-vaunted crackdown on anti-social behaviour has failed to deliver relief to scores of hard-hit communities. In addition, it discloses that simply responding to reports of anti-social behaviour costs the country £3.4 billion a year. The MPs criticise the Home Office for not carrying out adequate research into which measures work best in tackling and preventing bad behaviour. A mix of initiatives, such as Asbos, acceptable behaviour contracts, warning letters and dispersal orders are used in different proportions around the country. But there is no central assessment of the various schemes. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/24/nyobs124.xml
• An extra £3bn investment was announced by Yvette Cooper, the Housing minister, for "affordable" housing in Gordon Brown's drive to end the housing shortage. But it could still take 32 years to clear the backlog of 1.6 million who are on council waiting lists for social housing to rent. Ms Cooper hailed the Green Paper on housing yesterday as "the most significant programme of housebuilding for decades'' and "an ambitious positive response to the growing challenges that many people face in their day-to-day lives''. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2795661.ece
• The government has been accused of failing to act on its own advice to overhaul UK flood defences and drainage systems which first highlighted deep-seated problems three years ago. As large tracts of central and southern England remained under water, leaving tens of thousands of homes without power or drinking water, the environment minister, Hilary Benn, announced an independent review into what is being billed as the worst episode of flooding in modern British history. But it emerged last night that the government was warned in two separate reports that the plans in place to tackle flood risks were "complex, confusing and distressing for the public". In July 2004 the government said it needed to improve coordination between water companies, councils and the Environment Agency; then in 2005, the government also agreed to "work towards giving" the agency "an overarching strategic overview across all flooding and coastal erosion risks". Ministers promised to transfer this responsibility by 2006. http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,2133420,00.html  
• The government will today preserve the last outlet for cheap rail travel by retaining the price cap on saver fares. The saver ticket had been under threat following talks between the government, train operators and the national rail passenger watchdog, but proposals to relax price restrictions have been shelved following an outcry over recent increases. Three recent rail franchise awards have revealed plans to increase fares by 30% over the lifetime of the contracts, confirming the government's intention to make farepayers foot a greater share of the bill for running the rail network. However, it is understood that the government will leave all off-peak saver fares untouched when it publishes a five-year spending plan for the railways today. The strategic vision for 2009 to 2014 will also give the go-ahead for three major infrastructure projects: the £3.5bn upgrade of the former Thameslink route through central London, plus a £1bn revamp of two major stations at Birmingham New Street and Reading. http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,2133320,00.html  
• Thousands of children have been left without a secondary school to go to in September following intense competition to get into the best comprehensives, new figures show. About 4,000 11-year-olds failed to find any place for the next academic year after missing out on up to six different secondary schools. Many more were forced to accept unpopular schools they did not want - often miles from their homes.The disclosure follows an admission by one of the Government's leading education advisers that 70,000 children each year are forced into poor-quality secondary schools against parents' wishes. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/24/nschools224.xml
• Drivers will be fined £120 for straying into cycle lanes under plans to give local authorities powers to install yet another set of roadside enforcement cameras. Even minor infringements, such as moving briefly into a cycle lane to pass a vehicle turning right, will result in a fixed penalty. Drivers will not know that they have been caught until the penalty notice arrives in the post a few days later. The powers are initially being proposed for use by authorities in London but would be introduced later across the rest of the country. The cameras would also monitor cycle boxes at traffic lights, known as "advanced stop lines". Transport for London (TfL) believes that issuing thousands of penalties will make cycling safer by sending a strong message to drivers that they cannot ignore the white bicycle symbols painted on the road. http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life-and-style/driving/article2128011.ece
• Parliament should be given greater powers to veto government appointments,a committee of MPs saidyesterday. The Treasury select committee called on Gordon Brown to make good on his promise to strengthen the role of parliament by boosting its powers to vote on the suitability of candidates for important jobs. Soon after becoming prime minister last month, Mr Brown said he wanted to step up parliamentary scrutiny over top jobs, such as the chief inspector of prisons and the commissioner for public appointments. While giving MPs the chance to grill appointees, the proposed new select committee powers fall short of US-style confirmation hearings. Revealing it had backed the nomination of Sir Michael Scholar, 65, aschairman of the new Statistics Board, the Treasury committee noted that this was the only job subjectto a Commons confirmation process. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/30cc60b2-397e-11dc-ab48-0000779fd2ac.html