Review of the Papers, Thursday 8 February

Government

• The government must rely less on Muslim leadership organisations, Ruth Kelly said as she launched a £5m fund to help councils tackle extremism. Around 50 local authorities are seeking cash to support their work with Muslim communities, under an initiative which Tony Blair this week promised would "confront [extremism] in a more radical and head-on way". Specific local programmes could include working with those excluded from schools, colleges and mosques, who may be vulnerable to extremist messages and promoting greater interfaith understanding, for example through twinning schools. http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2008096,00.html
• Gordon Brown's claim to have made £13.3bn a year efficiency savings across Whitehall as part of a drive to cut waste is called into doubt today in a detailed investigation by the National Audit Office. The auditors found that nearly £10bn claimed to have been saved by the Treasury was open to question because it could not be properly measured or was substantially incorrect. Only £3.1bn of the £13.3bn gets a green light. http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2007924,00.html
• Thousands of patients are likely to be refused dental treatment until the start of the new financial year in April due to a cash crisis in the health service. Dentists in England were given new contracts last year which mean they are paid an annual income for an agreed number of check-ups and treatments. Those who were heading to complete their quota ahead of schedule expected to be able to negotiate payment for extra work, but they are now being told that there is no more money in the budget. If they treat any more NHS patients before the end of March, they will not be paid, which means thousands might be turned away. http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,2008099,00.html
• The Competition Commission is to launch a full-blown investigation into payment protection insurance, a £5.5bn a year industry dominated by the big banks and insurance companies. The investigation follows an analysis of the business by the Office of Fair Trading which had already concluded that consumers could save £1bn a year if there were more competition. The OFT signalled in October 2006 that it was considering such a referral. The Competition Commission could take up to two years to review PPI, which is often sold with loans and other financial products to enable customers to repay their debts if they fall ill, have an accident or become unemployed. http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2008066,00.html
• One in three homes built in recent years should not have received planning permission, according to a damning indictment of the industry by the government's architecture watchdog.Only 18 per cent of new homes measure up to design standards, according to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, in its first national survey of the industry.Inspectors from Cabe, who visited more than 300 sites, found 53 per cent of new homes were "mediocre" while another 29 per cent should never have been allowed. The hard-hitting report comes after the government encouraged local authorities to wave through tens of thousands of new homes to meet the country's perceived housing shortage. But ministers' concerns have been growing over the quality of some of these new properties. Ruth Kelly, communities secretary, said recently that many new houses were "just not up to scratch". http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d463c090-b719-11db-8bc2-0000779e2340.html
• Secondary schools are testing 11-year-old students themselves because they lack confidence in national curriculum test results. Headteachers believe too many pupils are being coached for maths and English tests throughout their last year at primary school to improve the school's league table position. They may reach the required standard in the national curriculum tests but lack the necessary comprehension to improve their standards - and are forced to sit new tests three months later. http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article2248790.ece
• Plans for road pricing throughout Britain could be blocked by the Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly. A senior official at the Department for Transport has admitted that Scottish MPs would have to debate any proposals to operate the scheme there. Devolution has put the Welsh in a similar position to make their own decisions on how to tackle congestion. The ability of the Scots to stop road pricing is particularly embarrassing for Douglas Alexander, the Transport Secretary, who is also Secretary of State for Scotland. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/08/nroads08.xml

Conservatives

• The technology industry yesterday lashed out at the Conservatives for pledging to scrap a multi-billion pound identity card scheme, saying the move would undermine business confidence in a Tory government and deter companies from working for the public sector. In a furious response to a Conservative letter to suppliers vowing to cancel the project, the trade body for technology companies said it "was wholly inappropriate for the industry to be used as a mechanism for scoring political points". http://www.ft.com/cms/s/9ed7f9ce-b718-11db-8bc2-0000779e2340.html
• Manchester’s hopes of opening Britain’s first supercasino were dealt a blow last night after the Conservatives threatened to block the latest phase of the Government’s gambling revolution, The Times has learnt. Amid signs of growing parliamentary revolt, the Tories have written to Tessa Jowell to express deep concern over the emergence of a potential legal loophole that could allow 14,000 high-value slot machines to be installed in casinos across the country. Companies such as Rank, which operate existing casinos, are angry that the 17 new-style casinos will be able to open with ten times more slot machines than current premises, offering significantly higher jackpots. They believe that the new casinos could be in breach of competition rules, and the courts could force the Government to allow the existing industry to install unlimited prize slot machines. Casino companies are desperate for high-value machines because they generate the most money, but experts caution that they are also the most likely to lead to problem gambling. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1350488.ece

Olympics

• London 2012 officials are in talks with utility companies to install and operate all of the energy needs of the Olympic Games at no cost, in return for allowing them to keep the assets and sell energy to future communities on the sites. The negotiations, being handled by the Olympic Delivery Authority, the body responsible for the construction of games facilities, are the first step in the organisers' strategy for getting the private sector to pay towards London 2012. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f4d5c99a-b719-11db-8bc2-0000779e2340.html
• Meeting the soaring costs of the 2012 Olympics with Lottery cash would be "disastrous", groups representing more than 16,000 charity and community organisations have warned. In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, the groups said diverting yet more Lottery cash would threaten their work with some of the country's "most disadvantaged" people. The cost of the 2012 Games, originally put at £2.375 billion, has already reached £4.3 billion and is set to rise even further. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/08/nolympics08.xml

EU

• Motorists are to be forced to change the way they drive to help car manufacturers to meet strict new emission targets, the European Union announced yesterday. All new cars will be fitted with devices that tell drivers when to change gear, what speeds to drive at and even when to pump up their tyres. The introduction of new technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ordered by Brussels yesterday, could add more than £2,000 to the price of a typical family car, manufacturers said. But the European Union said this would be offset by a reduction in fuel bills. Brussels also dismissed industry claims that the plans put up to 12 million European jobs at risk. The EU announced legislation to force manufacturers to sell cars that produce lower levels of greenhouse gas after they failed to meet voluntary targets. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1350454.ece

World

• Billions of dollars are being wasted in the international carbon trading system as a result of a loophole in the Kyoto protocol, according to a study published today in the journal Nature. The Financial Times revealed last month that a few Chinese factories and carbon traders were making large profits by exploiting the regulations in the protocol surrounding a potent greenhouse gas, HFC-23. By installing cheap equipment, the companies could gain "carbon credits" which they could sell for hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the study, about €4.6bn ($5.9bn, £3bn) could have been saved through closing this loophole and instead spending €100m on a simple measure that would eliminate large quantities of the gas. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/000cc32c-b71a-11db-8bc2-0000779e2340.html