Reacting to the recent speech made to the Fire Sector Summit by Labour shadow fire minister Lyn Brown on the future of the fire and rescue service Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “There is much to welcome in Lyn Brown’s speech, including opposition to the further privatisation and fragmentation of our fire and rescue service.
“We are pleased that there is a recognition that central government have to play a strategic oversight role rather than the hands-off approach we have seen from the current government which has led to chaos and fragmentation in recent years.”
However, the FBU also warned of the risk of the devastating impact of further cuts and called for a programme of investment to build a modern fire and rescue service to meet new risks and challenges. Wrack continued: “The endless austerity programme of cuts is wrecking our fire service and increasing the risks to firefighters and the local communities they serve.
“Labour and all the political parties at Westminster need to bring the dangerous austerity cuts to an end and to start investing in our fire service instead. As well as dealing with fires, road traffic collisions and the traditional fire service work, firefighters today are fully engaged in groundbreaking work to reduce risks in local communities.
“Firefighters are training to deal with new and emerging threats such as alarming new types of terrorist threats and the impact of extreme weather caused by climate change. We are keen to address these issues but investment is needed, not cuts.”
The FBU notes that Labour:
• Says that it rejects both partial and full privatisation of fire and rescue services.
• Would remove any threat that fire and rescue authorities will have to hand over their resources or control to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs).
• Would scrap the wasteful and unaccountable PCC’s altogether.
• Would make it a priority to introduce a statutory duty for the fire and rescue service to respond to major flooding incidents, placing this rescue activity alongside fighting fires and attending road traffic accidents as a statutory duty. This would finally recognise public debate about this issue and the central importance of preparing and planning for such crisis incidents.
• Say they will provide a coordinated approach with proper strategic oversight to ensure there is a rationale behind integration that takes into account local and national risk and resilience.
The FBU shares many of the concerns expressed by the shadow fire minister about the current Government’s stewardship of the fire and rescue service including:
• Concern at the total abrogation of leadership and strategic planning by this Government and by the last two fire ministers.
• Concern at the lack of vision, strategic oversight of the current government and the complacency it has shown toward its responsibilities in relation to the fire and rescue service.
• Concern at the current government’s piecemeal approach leaving 46 individual fire and rescue services to find further annual spending reductions without recourse to any over-arching national strategy to deal with risk and resilience.
• Concern at ministers passing the buck, ignoring their own responsibilities and the government’s gradual sleepwalk into a crisis.
• Concern at individual fire and rescue services having been left to deal with each annual cut.
The FBU welcomes the acknowledgement from the shadow fire minister that the current approach will result in greater public danger, less community safety, longer 999 response times and a diminished frontline.
The FBU is encouraged by comments made by the shadow fire minister about:
• The fire and rescue service doing much more than rescuing people from fire.
• The service reflecting and adapting to dynamic local, regional and national risks.
• The need to “focus on measures that will best protect the frontline and enable firefighters to continue to provide efficient and safe emergency responses.”
• That “a salami-slice approach is not sustainable.”
The fire and rescue service needs investment, not cuts. Nevertheless, the FBU stands ready to engage constructively with the suggestions put forward by the Labour shadow fire minister for the future of the fire and rescue service:
• To explore the options “that will build a resilient, enduring – and above all else – safe and professional, fire and rescue service for the coming years.”
• To “explore the number of services which permitted the most efficient and the safest operational model.”
• To consider the feasibility of some of the options and where we, as the voice of frontline professionals, think the operational and resilience benefits and risks of each option lie.
