After 14 years of austerity there are too few firefighters to guarantee resilience and public safety, according to new figures obtained by the FBU.
Freedom of information requests reveal that, since 2010, more than 8,000 wholetime firefighter jobs have been cut, while one in five retained firefighter posts have gone. Almost one in three control staff have been axed. The total is 12,000.
England is the worst hit of the four UK administrations, with 10,000 (or 22.5%) jobs cut. In Scotland, there was a decrease of 1,400 (or 18%) in firefighters. Some 500 posts (or 13%) have been cut in Wales, while Northern Ireland has lost 230 (or 12%) of its firefighters.
The figures also expose the scale of “wholetime-retained” contracts.
There are 4,000 firefighters with a wholetime (full-time) contract as well as a retained (on call) contract – either with the same brigade or with another service.
These “wholetime-retained” contracts mean that one firefighter is counted as doing two jobs. This double counting means that the numbers actually employed and available are significantly less than official figures suggest.
The FBU is urging the Labour government to invest in the fire service as a matter of urgency.
