02/04/2014 BBC Points West

Good Evening. The Prime Minhster Is Expected To Visit Somerset This Week

To Discuss The Aftermath Of The Flooding With Civic Leaders. It

Comes Just Days After The Dredging Work He Ordered Began On Thd Rivers

Tone And Parrett. Meanwhile In Parliament Today Mps Have Bden

Investigating The Floods, Challenging Senior Figures @t The

Environment Agency. It The Chairman Welcomed The Start Of Dredghng, But

Warned It Won't Stop Flooding In The Future. The Floodwater On The

Somerset Levels Has All But Gone Now, But The Damage It Causdd Will

Take Many Months To Repair. Our Somerset Correspondent Clinton

Rogers Has Been Back To The Village Of Moorland Eight Weeks Aftdr The

Emergency Evacuation There. The Sound Of Spring In Moorland

Wherever You Look Here They Are Stripping Plaster, Pulling Down

Walls, Rebuilding Homes That Were Four Foot Deep In Water. Right Now

There Is An Army Of Builders In Moorland. These Houses Are @ll

Uninhabitable, And Are Likely To Remain So For Many Months To Come.

It Is Why There Remains A High`visibility Police Presdnce Here

And, At Night, There Is A Roadblock That Checks Everyone Coming In And

Out Of This Village. Picture Postcard From The Ottside.

But Step Inside John Griffin's Home And You See Exactly What Flood

Recovery Means: Pretty Much Starting From Scratch. All ...since H

Purchased It In 1988, Apart From The Outside Looks Quite Reasonable

Compared To The Inside. Coincidentally The Builder Here A

Former Councillor, Is One Of Those People Who'll Be Meeting Thd Prime

Minister In Somerset Tomorrow Night. if you get a chance to talk to him,

what will you say? mr cameron, what are you gohng to do

and who is going to be accotntable for what they've done? 130 Homes

Destroyed, Those Families Dhsplaced. Is Somebody Going To Be Held

Accountable? We're Not Sure If The Prime Minister

Will Visit Flood Victims Whhle He's Here, But If He Does Come To

Moorland? I Would Offer Him A Cup Of Tea. . If

I Had A Kettle. We Have Just Been Sacrificed In

Favour Of The Town. While They Are Left High And Dry, We Are Ldft To

Drown. John Griffin Has Taken To Vdrse To

Express His View That Moorl`nd Was Deliberately Flooded To Savd The

Town Of Bridgwater. The Enivornment Agency Says That's Simply Not True:

Excessive Rain Caused The Flooding. From The Air You Can See Th`t

Moorland Is Now Drying Out. The Back But Here There Are Now Calls For A

Public Inquiry To Determine Why The Floods Came So Quickly And Lasted So

Long. Clinton Rogers, Bbc Points West, Moorland.

If We Had Kept The Rivers In That Condition It Would Almost Cdrtainly

Not Have Prevented The Somerset Levels From Being Flooded. What It

Would Do Is Help Us To Clear The Water Away From The Somerset Levels

Faster. More Than A Million Pounds Has Been

Awarded To Councils In Somerset And Gloucestershire To Help Thel Merge

Services. Taunton Deane And West Somerset Councils Have Got One Of

The Biggest Awards From The Government, ?750,000. A Partnership

Involving Cotswold, The Fordst Of Dean, West Oxfordshire, And

Cheltenham Councils Is Getthng ?500,000. They Already Shard

Departments Like Finance And Payroll. To Now Is A Pension Really

The Best Way To Save For Yotr Retirement?

Or Are You Better Off Buying A Flat Or A House To Rent Out? Throughout

The Week We've Been Looking At The Cost Of Growing Older. Tonight Our

Business Correspondent Dave Harvey Challenges A Pensions Expert To

Examine The Alternatives To A Traditional Pension Pot.

For Robin And Terry, This Is Their Pension Pot: Bricks And Mortar.

They've Seen The Pensions Industry From The Inside, Writing Colputer

Code For The System That Generates Commission For The Sales Force.

They're On 2.5, 3% Commission, Followed By Years And Years Of Trail

Commission Off Our Pensions Contributions. That Really Just Got

Me In The Gut, It Was Quite Galling. I Think The Thing That Gives You The

Most Fear Is That You're Sthcking Money Into An Empty, Sort`of, Black

Hole And You Don't See It Again Until You Get Retirement Agd.

So For Tom Mcphail, The Pensions Enthusiast, Here's A Guided Tour Of

The Alternative. Robin And His Friends Have Set Up A Small Firm

Helping Ordinary People To Buy Ordinary Houses And Make Wh`t They

Claim Are Extraordinary Profits We Have A Paramedic In Cheltenham `

He's Now Living In Spain. Hd Started With Us In 2008, He Has Sevdn

Properties Now. He Said We Have Pulled Forward His Retirement Plans

By Five Years And He's Living Off The Rental Income. He's Abld To Buy

Another One Soon As Well. What You Are Talking About Hs

Everybody Putting All Their Chips On Black. I've Bought My Own Home, I'm

Then Going To Leverage My Own Home To Generate Some Spare Cash To Buy

Another Home And, If Anything Goes Wrong With The Property Market, I Am

Completely Sunk, I Have No Plan B. How Much Did Your Parents Pdople

Their First Host? That Whitd House? My Challenge To That Would Be That

People In Their 30s And 40s Need To Be Putting A Sizable Amount Away

Every Month. If You Are In Xour 40s It's Got To Be Up Over ?400`500 To

Amount To Any Kind Of Pension, And I'd Just Challenge: Are People Able

To Find That Kind Of Extra Cash These Days?

They Argued Back And Forth With Equal Passion, And We'd Lovd To Hear

What You Think By Email Or On Social Media. Pension Or Property, Which Do

You Trust? Dave Harvey, Bbc Points West.

There's More News On The Bbc Website And We're Back Tomorrow In

Breakfast. Now For The Weather. If You Look West, These Guys Will

Look Something Like This. Wd Will See Some Heavy Outbreaks Of Rain.

Generally Some Drier, Better Weather, But Some Heavy Clotd. A Few

Showers Around, But By Tomorrow Morning They Will Started To Have

Emerged. Part Of Somerset Gdtting Some Rain, Close To One Inch Or

More. Intermittent And Patchy Rain, Some Areas Will Be Largely Dry.

Temperatures Not Quite As Hhgh As Today, But Still Getting Up Towards

The Mid Teens. A Lot Of Patchy Rain Around On

be dry. The air pollution has been hitting the headlines today. For

more information on that, here is my colleague.

Good evening. Very hazy skies in London today and many other towns

and cities across the UK. On Thursday there is the chance of some

pretty high pollution in the south-east and East Anglia but by

the time we get towards the end of the week, we will see clearer

Atlantique air coming in and we should get rid of the Saharan dust

which has been making services grubby in the last few days. You can

see the pattern across the Atlantic. We also have a weather

front. The beginning of that change is affecting many western areas of

the UK. This particular cloud across the North Sea, you can see there is

a general drift here towards Scotland and the North Sea