Responding to today’s announcement of a 7.5% cut to the fire and rescue service budget in the comprehensive spending review, Fire Brigades Union general secretary, Matt Wrack, said:
“After three years of station closures, 3,600 job losses and a dangerous slowing of response times, these new attacks to fire services will start to cut through bone.
“The UK’s capacity to cope with large or concurrent emergencies is under serious threat, and whoever wins the next election must ensure that emergency services are properly funded in order to prevent greater loss of life.
“For this reason, the Labour Party must abandon plans to continue with the current government’s spending plans if elected. Labour will not win support from working people by promising to ape the Tories on cutting services.”
On the announcement of a £30 million fund to finance fire service reforms and a £40 million fire and rescue services capital fund, Wrack said:
“The Fire Brigades Union has pioneered genuine improvements within fire services for decades, but any reforms must put public safety first, and discussions on the future of emergency services must include the expert voice of firefighters themselves.
“Nevertheless, no amount of reform will compensate for the damage done to fire and rescue services by the ongoing cuts agenda, and our priority should be protecting services from the knife.”
