General Reports and Other Publications
CRC: A new study from the Rural Services Network (RSN) for the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC) highlights difficulties rural households may face keeping warm this winter. The report recommends that government fuel poverty and energy efficiency policy & programmes should include specific targets to improve the energy performance of ‘off gas’ & solid wall homes..
Press release ~ Understanding the real depth and impact of fuel poverty in rural England ~ Rural Services Network (RSN)
WF: A submission by The Work Foundation to the Treasury for its Comprehensive Spending Review is calling on the government to make a firm, long-term commitment to support growth in knowledge based industries.
The submission also proposes the creation of an annual Comprehensive Innovation Review, alongside the CSR, to build up an effective innovation system mechanism to maximise the positive impact on the economy over the next decade..
The submission also proposes the creation of an annual Comprehensive Innovation Review, alongside the CSR, to build up an effective innovation system mechanism to maximise the positive impact on the economy over the next decade..
Press release ~ Knowledge Economy strategy 2020: The Work Foundation submission to the Comprehensive Spending Review ~ The Work Foundation's Knowledge Economy programme
PX: Ahead of the Strategic Defence and Security Review, think tank Policy Exchange last week released its paper on the future of the Armed Forces. The report considers the opportunity now afforded by the SDSR for the Armed Forces to leave its Cold War structures behind and become an affordable, agile & efficient instrument of UK security policy.
Among its comments are that; ‘The MoD system of command is grossly inefficient, top heavy, with too many layers of command, too many supporting Headquarters and too little sharing of information. Added to this, the Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood is born of a system that wrongly assumes the command of military operations is best done by a UK-based bunker by staff who commute home every night and are in a different time zone’.
RUSI: Due to the current economic & strategic climate, British & French militaries must co-operate or 'risk ending the current decade amputated and shrunk beyond recognition', argues the latest Future Defence Review Working Paper from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
Entente or Oblivion: Prospects and Pitfalls of France-British Co-operation on Defence, by Etienne de Durand, states that both military establishments face a battle to maintain their current levels of capability. The paper maintains that, without some sort of bilateral agreement, and will not be able to conduct a conventional war to the levels that both nations desire.
