Vox,
A contributary factor in the reduction of aircrew flying hours isn't just budgetary. In my view it's also down to poor spares support, ridiculous levels of contractoisation in maintenance, and most importantly, the reduction in engineers on the squadrons coupled with experience drain. End result our aircrew aren't getting the requisite number of hours to tick all of their boxes.
There is no question of standards being cut, but a decent number of engineers plus adequate spares provision would help to put more jets on the line thereby minimising the impact of a crew-out.
It seems to me that the business end of the RAF is striving to achieve with one hand tied behind our backs. The strong hand. Don't get me started on the increasingly civilian and jobsworth attitudes being adopted by RAF personnel on the support side...