Plan to end the so called default retirement age is outlined in a consultation document to be published today

People will be encouraged to work longer under government plans to phase out the so-called default retirement age of 65 by October 2011.

Currently employers can make staff retire at 65 regardless of their circumstances, but ministers signalled this was set to change as people were living longer, healthier lives.

The proposal to phase out the default retirement age (DRA) is outlined in a consultation document, published today, which will run until October.

However, the government said bosses will still be able to operate a compulsory retirement age if they can "objectively justify it".

The move to phase out the DRA is one of a number of measures the government is taking to help and encourage people to work for longer against the backdrop of demographic change.

Other steps include reviewing when the state pension age should increase to 66 and re-establishing the link between earnings and the basic state pension.

The business department said the consultation also proposes to help employers by removing the administrative burden of statutory retirement procedures.

A department spokesperson said: "With the DRA removed there is no reason to keep employees' right to request working beyond retirement or for employers to give them a minimum of six months notice of retirement.

"Although the government is proposing to remove the DRA, it will still be possible for individual employers to operate a compulsory retirement age, provided that they can objectively justify it. Examples could include air traffic controllers and police officers."

The plans provoked a mixed reaction. Campaigners welcomed the decision, but employers warned the removal of a default retirement age could make workforce planning more difficult.

Chris Ball, chief executive of The Age and Employment Network, called it a "win/win outcome" for employers, but warned that today's move is only a first step.

"Many employers will need to adopt a totally new mindset," Ball said. "They will need to actively plan and assist workers to be able to go on contributing to the success of their organisations.

"This may mean adapting work practices and work places. It will certainly mean providing opportunities to train or retrain and to work more flexibly, and, crucially, actually recruiting people in their 50s and 60s where they may not have done so in the past."

Rachel Krys, campaign director of anti-ageism group the Employers Forum on Age (EFA), said the default retirement age, which was created in 2006, was a "dated and unfair system".

"Its removal is simply common sense," she said. "With rising life expectancies, and people staying fitter for longer, it is archaic to assume that someone's age is an indicator of the contribution they can make to the workplace.

"Employers have nothing to fear from this change. This is an outdated policy and the removal of forced retirement is an opportunity to put policies and processes in place which make the most of an age-diverse workforce."

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which has campaigned for many years to remove the DRA, said the "breakthrough" was "greatly encouraging".

Dianah Worman, the CIPD's diversity adviser, said: "Our research has shown that many employees wish to work past retirement for differing reasons and many employers are already benefiting from allowing such flexibility."

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said the proposals will give employers little time to prepare and leave them with unresolved problems. John Cridland, CBI deputy director-general, said: "Scrapping the DRA will leave a vacuum and raise a large number of complex legal and employment questions, which the government has not yet addressed. Employers and staff will not know where they stand. There will need to be more than a code of practice to address these practical issues; we will need changes in the law to deal more effectively with difficult employment situations."

David Yeandle, the Engineering Employers Federation's head of employment policy, said: "Many manufacturers will be seriously concerned about this change in policy, which will make workforce planning more difficult.

"The proposed timetable also gives employers virtually little or no time to alter their policies and practices before such an important change in employment legislation is introduced.

"There is also a real danger that it could open a Pandora's box with the onus being placed on employers to prove whether older employees are capable of continuing in their current role. Inevitably, this could lead to employment tribunal cases from some older employees who have been dismissed rather than allowed to retire."

'An artifical construct'

As a founder member of the EFA, Nationwide building society has been pushing hard for the DRA to be removed. It has allowed employees to work past retirement up to the age of 70 since 2001, once it realised many of its customers preferred to discuss their financial arrangements with older people.

In 2005 it raised that limit to 75 subject to employees passing what its HR director, John Whitehouse, describes as a "gateway test".

"As long as people want to carry on working and there aren't any problems, we're happy to let them do that," he said. "Since then I can't think of any example of us saying to staff, sorry we don't want you to carry on."

Out of an approximate 15,500 employees, Nationwide has 285 over the age of 60 working in all areas of the business. Its oldest branch manager is 60, while its oldest employee is a 76-year-old lady who works part time in its Swindon call centre.

From an employer's perspective, Whitehouse said Nationwide does have to think about issues like succession and benefits in a different way, "but they are not insurmountable things. Arguably these are things companies should be doing anyway. This artifical construct that we all must stop working at 65 is a relic of past usage. It's the stuff of the 1950s."

Today, pensions minister Steve Webb admitted that people face a "hell of a shock" when they reach retirement because of their failure to save.

In an interview with the Independent, he admitted that the basic state pension of £97 a week is "not enough to live on", and confirmed that the government would raise the state retirement age to 66 earlier than planned. He said that around 7 million people are currently not saving enough to meet their retirement aspirations.

Inquiry calls for permanent closure of heart unit after three babies died in three months

Children's heart surgery should cease for good at a hospital where four babies died, a report is to recommend today.

The babies died within three months at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford after treatment by the same surgeon.

The heart unit was temporarily closed in March after the deaths and an investigation launched by the Strategic Health Authority (SHA), the results of which are due to be released today.

The report discloses that managers were trying to increase the number of patients treated at the unit in an effort to avoid closure, according to the Daily Telegraph. Caner Salih, in his first consultant role in the UK, was recruited to that end, but was left alone on his second day in the post, the newspaper reported.

He is said to have complained about the age of equipment and poor working practices, asking for operations to cease. But his concerns were reportedly ignored for up to six weeks, with managers only informing the SHA and the Care Quality Commission when questioned by journalists.

Dr Bill Kirkup, director of clinical standards at the south central SHA, is understood to have concluded it would be unsafe to allow children's heart surgery at the unit in future. He said managers at the hospital feared closure of the cardiac centre – the smallest in the country, treating 100 patients a year – following a review of children's heart surgery centres.

Salih had no blame placed on him in the report.

In at least one of the four fatalities, it is likely the child would have died anyway, and each was seriously ill, the report is said to conclude.

However, the mortality rates for the operations they underwent were not high. No one at the SHA or the Oxford Radcliffe hospitals NHS Trust was available for comment.

Owner of north London Budgens store defends sale, saying squirrel is a sustainable meat and tastes lovely

The owner of a local Budgens supermarket has defended selling squirrel meat as a sustainable way of feeding people and says it has a "lovely" taste.

Andrew Thornton, started selling the meat about five months ago after requests from customers at his Budgens store in Crouch End, north London.

"There are too many squirrels around, we might as well eat them rather than cull them and dispose of them," he said.

Thornton sells up to 15 squirrels a week when they are in stock.

The animal welfare group Viva accused Budgens of profiting from a "wildlife massacre".

Its founder and director, Juliet Gellatley, said: "If this store is attempting to stand out from the crowd by selling squirrel, the only message they are giving out is that they are happy to have the blood of a beautiful wild animal on their hands for the sake of a few quid."

Thornton rejected the claim: "That's not the case at all. If we are selling 10 or 15 a week I don't think that falls into the definition of a massacre."

He predicted more people would eat squirrel in the future.

"I think it's lovely. It's bit like rabbit. I think there will be a lot of fuss about this now, but in a few years it will become accepted practice that we eat squirrels. People don't bat an eyelid now about eating rabbit," he said.

Thornton buys the meat from a game supplier in Suffolk, the Wild Meat Company, but said he hadn't stocked it for several weeks because the firm had run out of squirrel while it focused on other game products.

"We would like to get it back on shelves as soon as we can. We are a mainstream supermarket but we take a very strong sustainability stance," he said.

"We got into it because we had requests from customers. There are a lot of people who understand sustainability issues around here."

Thornton claimed that squirrel meat is more sustainable than beef. "It takes about 15 tonnes of grain to produce one tonne of beef, which is not sustainable.

"Squirrels will be culled anyway. You have two choices. Either you dispose of them or you eat them."

The actor and Viva patron Jenny Seagrove said selling squirrel meat was "unbelievable".

"Anyone who cares about wildlife, as I do, should be appalled at Budgens for allowing this," she said.

A spokesman for Musgrave, which operates Budgens, told the Daily Mail: "As our retailers are independent, they therefore have the right and ability to secure products that Budgens do not offer for sale, within their individually owned stores."

Local authority spending cuts could affect newspaper sales if the latest decision by Aberdeen council is replicated across Britain.

From Monday onwards, there will be fewer daily papers available for the city's councillors to read in their lounge.

The administration will no longer provide copies of the Daily Record, the Scottish Sun, the Scottish Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, the Financial Times and The Times.

Aberdeen's councillors will have to make do with the city's own titles - the Press and Journal and the Evening Express - one from Glasgow, The Herald, and one from Edinburgh, The Scotsman.

Expected savings: about £1,336 a year. (No jokes please about excessive Scottish thrift). Perhaps the good burghers of Aberdeen will buy their own papers, or read at least some of those titles for free online.

Anyone know of councils elsewhere doing the same?

Source: AllMediaScotland

David gets steamed up about the state of the nation's trains, and wonders if we Brits feel that they're all we deserve

MoD announces General Sir Peter Wall, straight-talking Iraq war veteran, as successor to General Sir David Richards

The new head of the army, who will take up the post at a crucial time for the service, is to be General Sir Peter Wall, an experienced, straight-talking, commander whose appointment is likely to be welcomed by British soldiers.

Wall, 55, a six-foot-plus bear of a man – known to enjoy a good debate – will take over from General Sir David Richards who becomes chief of the defence staff in October. In the shuffle among the army's top brass, Wall will be succeeded in his current post as commander in chief of UK land forces by Lt Gen Sir Nick Parker, currently deputy head of Nato-led forces in Afghanistan.

After overseeing British operations during the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Wall commanded the 1st Armoured Division deployed to Basra two months later. Asked earlier this year by Chilcot inquiry member Sir Lawrence Freedman, referring to the army's role in Iraq: "Do you think that the government in Britain understood quite the task that they were asking you to take on and where it was going to lead?"

Wall replied: "If I'm frank, no."

"And did you get a chance to say that to ministers?"

"Very firmly."

Wall told the Chilcot inquiry that by 2007, British troops had become "the focus of the violence" in Basra.

A year later as the senior military officer responsible for operations, in what may now seem a prophetic warning, he told MPs on the House of Commons defence committee that there was no point in investing more money and men in Afghanistan unless security and economic and social projects were seen to be "inspired by the Afghans themselves". He added. "If we do it for them, it will just not count."

He said three months ago: "We need to ensure that there is the right balance of soldiers in different arms and services, ranks and trades, so that we are in the best possible shape for current operations."

Wall may have a chance to put this into practice as the forthcoming strategic defence and security review could lead to a significant cut, perhaps of 20,000, in the army's current strength of about 100,000.

However, army chiefs are expected to argue that with soldiers fighting and dying in Afghanistan, big cuts in the army would not be good for morale.

In what Richards has described as a "horse and tank" moment, referring to the debate which raged among military planners after the first world war, the army is expected to offer cuts in the number of large battle tanks and long-range artillery guns, and a better organisation of the Territorial Army (TA). In return, it is expected to demand continuing improvements in badly needed equipment including armoured vehicles.

Army chiefs also expect the navy to spend less on nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers, and the RAF to give up some fast jets – mainly Tornados – and bases.

The salary of the head of the army ranges from £165,000 to £170,000.

Liam Fox, the defence secretary, said referring to Wall and Parker: "I'm absolutely delighted with both of these appointments. We're very lucky to have men of such high calibre at this time."

Review of Scottish government's spending options also says free university education, free personal and nursing care for the elderly, and free eye tests and prescriptions are all at risk

Up to 50,000 public sector jobs could be lost and universal benefits such as free care for the elderly could be either cut or scrapped because of dramatic reductions in public spending in Scotland, an official review has warned.

Free university education, free personal and nursing care for the elderly, free eye tests and prescriptions, generous public sector pay deals and a long-term freeze in council tax are all at risk, the spending review said.

The panel of "three wise men", set up by ministers in Edinburgh earlier this year to review the Scottish government's spending options, said the entire public sector faced intense pain as the UK government planned for 25% cuts in spending.

"Many will find this report uncomfortable reading … difficult choices will have to be made. There are no 'quick fixes' or 'silver bullets'," it warned.

The panel's chairman, Crawford Beveridge, a former chief executive of the investment agency Scottish Enterprise, added: "We think it's going to be very difficult."

With spending in Scotland expected to fall by 12.5% in real terms by 2015, or £4.3bn, they said ministers should consider a two-year pay freeze for all nurses, police, teachers, civil servants and council workers as an "essential first step".

Public sector pensions should also be reviewed and the bonus scheme for senior doctors reconsidered.

The panel said 30,000 to 50,000 public sector jobs would be lost, with compulsory redundancies inevitable. Failing to cut jobs would mean much deeper cuts in frontline services since pay makes up 60% of public sector spending

"There are going to be a very difficult set of discussions with [public sector] employees and their representatives around how much restraint that they're willing to have versus how many of their colleagues would be able to stay in their jobs," Beveridge said.

"Because the only way to reduce the pay bill is to reduce the number of people."

The review's recommendations ignited furious arguments about future policy. The University and College Union said the panel was "out of touch" by proposing to reintroduce higher education tuition fees.

Its suggestion to make Scottish Water, which is still publicly owned, a "public interest company" to save £140m would be "massively resisted", said the Scottish TUC. The public sector union Unison said the entire report was an "assault" on public services.

Critics of Scottish government spending, which was £30bn this year and about £1,300 more per head than the UK average because of a complex Treasury spending arrangement called the Barnett formula, claim the public sector is swollen, stagnant and inefficient.

Its supporters insist that the need in Scotland is greater: poverty is more deeply ingrained, there are still structural problems with the economy and its geography and dispersed population leads to extra costs.

Beveridge said all the parties had to reconsider their pledge to ringfence health service spending otherwise all other public services would be doubly hit. The national health service in Scotland takes up 30% of total spending, compared with 15% in England. "Our recommendation is that they think very carefully about that," he said.

The panel, which also included Sir Neil McIntosh, formerly a senior local government executive, and Robert Wilson, a recently retired partner at the consultancy Deloitte, has presented Alex Salmond's Scottish nationalist government with a formidable political problem and paves the way for bitter rows over spending in the run-up to next May's Scottish parliamentary elections.

Salmond narrowly won power in May 2007 by promising voters a series of taxpayer-funded incentives, including freezing council tax, abolishing student fees and all student debts, and free prescriptions.

The first minister now faces introducing swingeing budget cuts in November, which the Beveridge panel said would be harsher because he delayed making cuts this year to help combat the worst effects of the recession.

John Swinney, the Scottish finance secretary, refused to comment on the panel's detailed proposals but urged all parties to jointly discuss its conclusions. Blaming the last and current UK governments for the cuts, he said it increased the case for greater financial powers for Holyrood.

"It underlines the absolute need for the Scottish parliament and government to secure financial responsibility and the same economic powers that other nations have," he said.

The Tories, who asked Salmond to set up the budget review, said: "This is a total vindication of everything we have said in the parliament for years and a wake-up call to the other parties. This is a new era in public spending and public services, and nobody should underestimate the scale of the challenges ahead."

Capital spending would also fall by 28%, or £900m by 2015, so ministers should drop their ideological opposition to using private finance for major public projects, such as the new £2bn Forth road bridge for which the SNP has refused to consider public-private partnership.

But the panel ruled out privatising Scottish Water and also said it had rejected entirely scrapping free personal and health care for the elderly.

While more people should be asked to pay for it, the panel defended the principle of free personal care. Scrapping it would be "draconian and inappropriate and not in tune with the Scottish parliament", McIntosh said.

Paul Yarrow has crept on to our screens, striking a blow for ordinary men. Is there a place on TV for the less than perfect?

Paul Yarrow wants to take a stand for all ordinary-looking men and women by gatecrashing as many TV shows as he can. So far, the "news raider" has appeared on al-Jazeera, BBC1, ITV, Channel 4 and more. He argues that there are too many beautiful people on TV – do you agree? Should TV shows diversify the physical appearance of their presenters?

Dentures sold at auction are one of several specially made to preserve PM's famous diction during rousing wartime speeches

A set of false teeth belonging to Winston Churchill's has been sold for £15,200 at an auction in Norfolk.

The upper dentures, one of several sets made for the wartime prime minister, were specially constructed to preserve his natural lisp and were so important he carried two pairs with him at all times.

The teeth, sold by the son of the dental technician who made them, had been expected to fetch a maximum of £5,000, but they were bought for more than three times that by a British collector of Churchill memorabilia.

The set of dentures were designed to be loose-fitting so that Churchill could preserve the diction famous from his radio broadcasts during the second world war, an expert said.

"From childhood, Churchill had a very distinctive natural lisp; he had trouble with his S's," said Jane Hughes, head of learning at the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. "These are the teeth that saved the world."

The medical museum displays a duplicate set of Churchill's dentures in a glass cabinet alongside other famous teeth including dentures worn by Queen Caroline, the estranged wife of King George IV.

"Churchill wanted to maintain [the lisp] because he was already so well known for it," she said. "The dentures wouldn't quite connect with the top of the mouth, but that was on purpose."

The dentures were made by the dental technician Derek Cudlipp, who produced three or four identical sets for Churchill. One set is believed be have been buried with the leader.

The false teeth were made just around the start of the war, when Churchill would have been about 65, Hughes said.

The politician is famous for his rousing speeches to the British nation during the war, but his dental issues are less well known. Hughes said Churchill had many problems with his teeth as a child and probably lost some of them quite early. The leader valued so highly the skill of his dentist, Wilfred Fish, that he nominated him for a knighthood.

Churchill served as prime minister from 1940 to 1945 and then from 1951 to 1955.

Kayley Boleyn and Christopher Taylor inflicted more than 70 injuries on toddler Ryan Lovell-Hancox

A couple who murdered a toddler they were paid to look after were today jailed for life.

Kayley Boleyn, 19, and Christopher Taylor, 25, inflicted more than 70 injuries on three-year-old Ryan Lovell-Hancox. The boy lived with the couple at their flat in Bilston, West Midlands, for a month before he was taken to hospital in a coma after a brain haemorrhage.

They had been paid £40 a week by the boy's mother and Boleyn's cousin, 21-year-old Amy Hancox, who felt she could not look after the child because of mental health problems. But Boleyn "abused the trust" of Ryan's parents, who had no idea of their son's suffering.

Wolverhampton crown court heard Taylor and Boleynforced the youngster to live in squalor in the weeks before his death on Christmas Eve 2008, providing better care for two dogs. Violence towards Ryan was not borne from a "flash of temper", but was sustained and horrific.

Two days before Ryan's death, Hancox tried to batter down the door to Boleyn's home to see her son. But Boleyn, who like her boyfriend abused cannabis and alcohol, refused to let her in as Ryan's face and body was covered in bruising.

Mrs Justice Macur ordered Boleyn to serve at least 13 years in prison while Taylor was told his minimum term would be 15 years. "It's clear to me that you [Boleyn] and your co-defendant were incapable of looking after yourselves, let alone a child," she said.

"There were bruises to his skull, which had been inflicted by up to 10 individual blows. There were marks on his legs and grazes to his face. He had been grabbed forcibly around the jaw and slapped and punched.

"These were not in isolation. There were further assaults to his lower back and buttocks on which there was extensive bruising.

"It really was a case where the jury saw injuries from top to toe. He would have suffered emotionally and physically and he would have needed comfort but you mocked him."

The judge added: "You were unable to keep your own lives under control without smoking cannabis and alcohol and you took your petty grievances out on this boy because you regarded him as hyperactive and out of control."

It was disclosed during today's 45-minute hearing that Boleyn, who with Taylor was found guilty in March of murder and child cruelty, was known to social services. A social worker had attended her home on the day the toddler was taken to hospital.

Social workers were aware Boleyn had problems after she left school, aged 12, to care for her younger siblings.

Frances Oldham QC, for Boleyn, read out a probation officer's report to the court which said: "I believe Miss Boleyn is vulnerable and in need of assistance. She has very few supportive relationships in her life and as a result is very isolated."

Wolverhamton city council said it expected to publish the findings of its serious case review this autumn.

Ryan's mother and his father, John Lovell, 24, wept throughout the hearing. Hancox ran from the public gallery in tears as her victim impact statement was read out. In it she described her son as a "bubbly, intelligent boy who she loved with all her heart".

Congested capital might not welcome special Games Lanes set aside for athletes, officials and 'marketing partners'

The nation's collective, unquestioning enthusiasm for London 2012 could be dampened, with the announcement today of the key traffic lanes that will only be accessible to Olympic traffic.

The so-called "Games Lanes", which will run along more than 60 miles of London's roads, will only be accessible to vehicles from the Olympic family – which includes coaches carrying athletes and officials, but also "marketing partners" – and are designed to enable swift and safe transport between accommodation and venues.

The lanes form part of the Olympic Route Network, announced today by the Olympic Delivery Authority – the public body responsible for developing and building venues and infrastructure for the Games.

The ODA stresses that other recent games, including Beijing, Athens and Sydney have all used Games Lanes, but the news that some of London's traffic lanes will be off-limits to normal drivers for weeks is likely to provide further fuel for those already beginning to question the value of hosting the Olympics.

Tuesday marked two years until the start of the 2012 Games and several of the responses on guardian.co.uk suggested not all were overwhelmed.

"What a waste of time and money – invest in schools, instead of this pantomime," opined jobytug, in a comment that was recommended by 81 other readers.

He added: "This is a jingoistic playtime for kids who never grew up."

Now the revelation that 25,000 marketing partners –"whose funding and support is essential to the running of the Games," the ODA said in a statement – will be among those authorised to use the Games Lanes could leave another bitter taste.

(I should also state here that 28,000 journalists will also be among the users, along with 18,000 athletes and 11,000 officials).

The Games Lanes scythe across central London [pdf map] from east to west and vice versa. The transport minister, Theresa Villiers, admitted Londoners' daily journeys could be affected.

"Plans for the Olympic Route Network are an important part of ensuring the Games are a success," she said.

"Experience in other host cities clearly shows how vital this network is for enabling the world's greatest athletes to get where they need to be.

"There's no doubt that the Olympics will have an impact on many of the daily journeys made by Londoners, but the government, the mayor and London 2012 are working hard to ensure we keep the capital moving."

The ORN will cover more than 100 miles of London roads, and a further 171 miles outside the side road closures, banned turns, changes to traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, adjustments to bus and coach stops and the temporary suspension of bus stops (on the plus side, roads in the ORN will be free from roadworks).

You can view maps of the network on the official London 2012 website.

We want to find exactly out what kind of beliefs students bring to science lessons, and how teachers can deal with them

Alom Shaha recently raised the issue of how science teachers should respond to being asked questions about God that arise in science lessons. Shaha draws attention to an increasingly sensitive issue for teachers already challenged by the ever-shifting demands of curriculum, assessment and other expectations. This became clear two years ago when the education director of the Royal Society, Professor Michael Reiss, a highly respected biologist and science educator, resigned after pointing out that science teachers need to take into account student worldviews in teaching about evolution. Yet one of the central principles of teaching science is that pupils' existing beliefs and understandings will influence their learning, and there is much research to show that teaching which ignores this is seldom effective.

Sadly, Shaha is right. Some young people will come into the school science laboratory assuming that science and religion are necessarily in conflict. This may derive from views at home: but in recent years there have been a number of high-profile television programmes claiming that science has ousted religious superstition with its rational approach. Students from religious communities who have accepted this view are indeed likely to find science an uncomfortable school subject, and so to later avoid further study and employment in science.

As there are many religious scientists, and diverse views about whether science should be seen as in conflict, harmony or dialogue with, or even as totally irrelevant to, religion, it is clearly unfortunate if some children are disengaging with school science because of a popular conception that science and religion are opposed. The arguments for how a supernatural God might relate to a natural world ordered through regular laws are often nuanced, and are seldom encountered by school-age students. This links to understanding about the nature of science itself (its limits, the status of its laws etc), which has recently become a more central theme of the school science curriculum – although this has traditionally been an area of relative weakness in science teaching and learning.

It was concerns such as these which led to the setting up of the Learning about Science and Religion (Lasar) research project, which is a collaboration between researchers at the universities of Cambridge and Reading. The project sets out to explore how secondary age pupils actually do perceive the relationship between science and religion, and how this impacts on their thinking about the science they are taught. The researchers are based in university education departments that are heavily involved in teacher education, and it is hoped that investigating student thinking in this area will enable us to find ways to better support teachers in Shaha's position, whatever their own personal views about the matter.

The researcher leading the project from Reading, Dr Berry Billingsley of the Institute of Education, has previously undertaken research in Australia, where she found that university students generally reported showing limited sophistication in dealing with the issue during their own earlier schooling. Indeed a common response had been to avoid considering a potential conflict by switching into science mode in science lessons, but then to switch away from that way of thinking in other classes. This may be a good coping strategy, but it is not good education. Science teachers desperately want their teaching to influence students beyond the laboratory or examination room. As Shaha points out: scientific ways of thinking are important life skills.

The Lasar research, funded through the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St Edmund's College Cambridge, is now underway, using both survey methods and detailed interviewing of a sample of secondary age pupils in various parts of England. Our early impressions are that considerable numbers of students do consider science and religion to be in conflict, and that few have developed sophisticated ways of thinking about possible alternatives. A surprising number of Christian students – not just those from more fundamentalist churches – consider that their religion is committed to a six-day creation of the world, including special acts of creation to produce Adam and Eve as progenitors of the human race. That is something I would not have realised when I was a school science teacher, knowing that mainstream churches have no problems with scientific theories of origins. Science teachers currently have little preparation to deal with student questions on the issue. That is something our project intends to address by better informing science teachers about where students' thinking is at, and by making them aware of the full range of positions that different scientists adopt on the issue. Science teachers should neither tell students what to think about God, nor what to think about how science relates to religion. However, they should introduce students to the range of views available. Shaha wants science teachers to equip young people to arrive at their own decisions, and our research is aimed at supporting teachers in this important task.

Annual rate of house price inflation drops to 6.6% as demand from homebuyers remains subdued in face of uncertain climate

House prices fell in July for the first time since February as demand subdued due to a lack of credit and nerves on the part of homebuyers reluctant to make commitments in the face of the economic outlook.

The average price of a UK property fell to £169,347 from £170,111 last month, according to the figures published by Nationwide Building society today.

"So far in 2010 demand from homebuyers has made little progress in building upon the recovery seen during much of 2009," said Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide's chief economist.

"Despite the introduction of a second stamp-duty holiday for the vast majority of first-time buyers and record low interest rates, the number of properties changing hands across the UK is still running at only half the levels seen prior to the financial crisis and recession."

The recorded 0.5% monthly fall means the annual rate of house price inflation dropped to 6.6% in July compared with 8.7% in June. Demand from homebuyers remains subdued, Nationwide said.

Gahbauer said a combination of restrictive credit conditions and uncertainty about the future economic outlook means only wealthier buyers remain in the market.

"Many potential buyers still lack the confidence to purchase their first home or trade up when faced with uncertainty over future income and employment prospects," he said.

Bank of England figures yesterday show that mortgage approvals fell more than expected in June and overall lending slowed, offering further evidence that the housing market is running out of steam following price rises last year. The bank said net mortgage lending growth slowed to £665m in June from May's £838m while mortgage approvals fell to 47,643 in June from 49,461 in May.

"This is the first time the annual rate has turned negative since April last year, but it is likely to remain so in future months as comparison is made with a stronger market towards the end of last year," said Paul Samter of the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

"Remortgaging activity also remains at exceptionally subdued levels. The low demand is being driven both by the lack of demand among those existing borrowers enjoying low rates, and tighter criteria that may be constraining those borrowers who do wish to remortgage."

The outlook remained bleak for homeowners, according to Nationwide, with concerns about the medium-term impact of fiscal austerity on personal finances "more than outweighing any potential optimism about the recovery's short-term cyclical momentum".

Howard Archer, from IHS Global Insight, said the figures supported his view that prices are likely to fall by between 3 and 5% in the second half of the year and lose further ground in 2011.

"The 0.5% house price drop in July adds to a now steady stream of weak data and survey evidence on the housing market, and further fuels our belief that house prices will fall back over the latter months of 2010 and very likely soften further in 2011."

Earlier this week a Hometrack survey showed house prices falling by 0.1% in July – the first decline in 15 months according to its data. The report also indicated that talk of impending public spending cuts is hurting confidence, with a 1.3% fall in new buyers registering with agents and homes now taking 8.7 weeks to sell – back to August 2009 levels.

Defence secretary Liam Fox rebuked by chancellor, who says there are no exemptions for his budget

George Osborne delivered a rebuke to the defence secretary, Liam Fox, when he declared that the costs of Britain's new Trident nuclear deterrent will come from the main defence budget.

In a sign of the Tory's leadership's growing impatience with Fox, who has embarked on what Downing Street sources have dubbed as "freelance" missions, the chancellor said there could be no special accountancy exemptions for the defence budget.

Speaking to Bloomberg in New Delhi, Osborne said: "The Trident costs, I have made it absolutely clear, are part of the defence budget. All budgets have pressure. I don't think there's anything particularly unique about the Ministry of Defence. I have made it very clear that Trident renewal costs must be taken as part of the defence budget."

The chancellor's blunt remarks will be seen as something of a reprimand for Fox, who complained recently that his department was being asked to pay the £20bn costs of replacing Trident. Fox believes that the costs of replacing Trident should come directly from the Treasury because Britain's continuous-at-sea defence is a matter of national security.

The defence secretary went public with his concerns on 18 July when he told BBC 1's Andrew Marr Show: "There has always been an understanding that the [capital] budget for the nuclear deterrent came from outside the core defence budget. Running costs for the deterrent have always come from inside.

"That is something we are discussing in the run-up to the spending review.

To take the capital cost would make it very difficult to maintain what we are currently doing in terms of capabilities."

There have been tensions for some time between Fox and Osborne over Trident. The defence secretary, a committed Atlanticist with links to the Republican right, is a strong believer in delivering a like-for-like replacement of the four submarines that ensure Britain can launch a nuclear strike from beyond its shores at any time.

Osborne, with links to more moderate US figures than Fox, supports a replacement for Trident. But he is understood to be more open minded about finding a like-for-like replacement.

David Cameron said last month that there was "a case" for "bearing down" on the cost of the Trident programme.

The Treasury regards Fox's remarks as a classic example of ministerial lobbying ahead of a spending round. Osborne is due to outline the tightest spending squeeze in a generation in October.

One source said: "The costs of Trident have always come out of the MoD budget. We know what Liam is up to. But does he expect that the department of culture will pay for Trident?"

The MoD has been promised it will be treated more lightly than other departments in October. But these reassurances are aimed at troops in Afghanistan.

The strong remarks by the chancellor are designed to stop Fox's public negotiations. But they also reflect growing impatience with the defence secretary in Nos 10 and 11 Downing Street.

There was irritation when he likened Afghanistan to a "broken 13th century country". But Fox provoked real fury in No 10 when he told the Sunday Times that Air Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the chief of defence staff, would retire when the strategic defence review has been completed by the end if this year.

Downing Street had agreed with Stirrup, who promised Gordon Brown he would serve an extra few years in his post, to retire at the end of the year. But Cameron felt Fox had been insensitive to Stirrup.

• BT ready for battle with regulator
• Pension deficit shrinks to £6.6bn
• Profits up 17% to £446m
• 240,000 broadband customers added last quarter

BT is refusing to accept defeat in its battle to pass on part of the cost of its pension deficit to other telecoms firms which use its UK network to offer services.

Chief executive Ian Livingston said BT will fight Ofcom's provisional decision last week not to consider its multibillion pound pension black hole when setting the cost of its wholesale products.

BT's wholesale products are used by many operators to provide broadband and landline services in the UK. The prices are regulated by Ofcom, and BT believes that they should include its full pension costs. Ofcom, though, concluded after an initial consultation that this could lead to fluctuating prices that would harm the overall telecoms market.

"We think Ofcom has come to the wrong answer, and will be making that very clear and looking at whatever action we need to take on that issue," said Livingston, speaking after BT reported solid financial results for the last three months.

Livingstone also cautioned that the issue only involved "tens of millions of pounds" a year.

Ofcom expects to make a final ruling on the issue by the end of this year.

At present, wholesale charges reflect BT's ongoing cost of providing pensions, but excludes payments made by BT in respect of its pension fund deficit. If BT persuades Ofcom to change that view, then wholesale prices could rise – resulting in higher charges for consumers.

BT's pension fund is the largest private scheme in the UK. The company reported today that its deficit has shrunk to £6.6bn, having hit £9bn at the end of 2008.

Shares in BT rallied by 3% to 144p after the company reported a 17% increase in adjusted pre-tax profits to £446m, while revenues slid by 4% to just over £5bn. Livingston said the results were "acceptable".

The BT chief executive also reassured the City that the group did not expect to suffer from the UK's austerity drive, even though some 10% of its revenues come from the public sector. Livingston said that BT has met with the coalition government to discuss how savings could be made quickly, with a couple of small contracts already being stopped.

"The government has asked us to come up with suggestions about how we can cut costs," said Livingston. "We understand the challenges that the UK economy has, and we will try to assist with that."

BT believes that the austerity measures could be a business opportunity, if it can convince ministers that they could make savings by handing more work to the company.

Last week Cable & Wireless Worldwide warned that the cutbacks would hurt its earnings this year. BT, though, insists that it does not anticipate any significant impact.

BT also reported that it had added a total of 240,000 new broadband customers during the last quarter, with 96,000 signing up with BT Retail and the remainder choosing other ISPs. Livingston said this showed BT was racing ahead of Virgin Media, the cable operator, which reported a net addition of 26,000 new broadband customers yesterday.

"When customers have a choice they are absolutely choosing the BT network, whether it is BT Retail or one of the ISPs that use our network. They are voting with their feet," Livingston told analysts.

On Monday Ofcom reported that many broadband customers who use BT's network are getting only a small fraction of the speeds they were promised when they sign up, while Virgin Media's services were much closer to the headline speeds.

Neil Berkett, Virgin Media chief executive, has now called for a clampdown on the way broadband is advertised, accusing his rivals of being "grossly misleading".