I wrote this for the Guardian, published today.
John Prescott’s regional fire control project was a calamitous failure, yet the real lessons have still not been learned and the present government is making the same mistakes.
Around half a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money was wasted on Prescott’s folly, which aimed to close 46 fire control rooms in England and replace them with nine regional control centres. It’s thought the taxpayer is still paying £50,000 a day in rent for eight empty buildings, built under the private finance initiative (PFI).
Typically, Prescott has passed the buck, blaming firefighters and civil servants for the failure of FiReControl. His profligacy is matched only by his irresponsibility. Only the clueless blame others when they had the power to know. As the prime mover, he had the capacity to shut down the project at any point. He should hold his hand up. The central failure was political.
Earlier this week, the public accounts committee slammed the waste and mismanagement of the project, using language eerily familiar to the Fire Brigades Union, since we warned from the start that it was a disaster-in-waiting. Margaret Hodge, who chairs the committee, was a member of the government at the time, so a little mea culpa would be welcome from her quarter too.
Certainly senior civil servants pressed ahead with the scheme, despite our numerous and clear warnings. Certainly, the private technology providers and consultants exploited the public purse, as have the owners of the PFI-financed control rooms. Chief fire officers backed the project, when the better judgment was to oppose it. But critically it was ministers who failed to listen to the warnings given by professional firefighters and fire control staff through their trade union.
The FBU was for a long time the sole voice highlighting soaring costs, incompetence and delays. We gave evidence to two select committees. From the beginning we constantly raised concerns with the leading actors and organisations involved. We commissioned three damning reports by the Institute of Public Finance. Yet we were dismissed as ignorant scaremongers who didn’t know as much as the politicians, civil servants and consultants running the project.
But the folly continues under the present government. Although the Tory-led coalition has scrapped the FiReControl project, it is repeating its mistakes. Principally, it is not consulting with professional voices within the fire and rescue service. It does not subject the policy evidence to sufficient scrutiny, nor does it take adequate care with the consequences of its proposals.
Worse, the current government’s plans for the fire and rescue service threaten national resilience and will put lives at risk. Its laissez-faire approach, washing its hands of central oversight in favour of catch-penny “localism”, together with savage budget cuts and the threat of privatisation, has allowed control rooms to be shut, merged and regionalised ad hoc. Its preference is for volunteers and speculators to come in and fragment the fire service.
Central government and its local counterparts have actively encouraged the likes of AssetCo to provide fire engines and equipment. Yet this firm has been in and out of court, teetering on the brink of administration or takeover, and plainly in financial difficulties. It cannot be right to place an emergency service in the hands of such a company.
Restructuring public services against the better judgment of those who work in them betrays a cavalier arrogance. The present government would do well to avoid that mistake. Professional firefighters will never allow our great public service to be wrecked.
