Government
- Constant deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and the increasing amount of time spent away from home are key factors causing people to leave the Armed Forces, a committee of MPs said yesterday. The number of officers leaving the Army and RAF early - and also other ranks in the air force - are at a ten-year peak, the Commons Public Accounts Committee said. The committee disputed the Ministry of Defence's claim that servicemen and servicewomen being deployed overseas were "stretched but not overstretched". The MPs said: "The impact of continuous downsizing [manpower cuts], pressures and overstretch is affecting the [MoD's] ability to retain and provide a satisfactory life for Armed Forces personnel." They said that the MoD had been operating "above the most demanding level of operations under defence planning assumptions since 2001 but has not adjusted its manning requirements". http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2017699.ece
- The government is to increase spending on flood defences and risk management following the estimated £1bn devastation to 27,000 homes and more than 5,000 business after torrential rain last week. The environment secretary, Hilary Benn, told the Commons that a budget of £800m had been agreed for 2010-11, which will be overseen at ministerial level following the disaster. The rise reverses recent government policy, which forced flood defence cuts in the roughly £500m granted to the Environment Agency. The agency said last week that an effective programme needed £750m a year for the next three years, rising to nearer £1bn annually if climate change affects flooding as widely predicted. http://environment.guardian.co.uk/water/story/0,,2117084,00.html