Rising costs of regionalisation threaten cuts to fire services
1 September 2008
Local fire & rescue authorities across Surrey face the prospect of making cuts to local fire stations or increasing the fire levy on council tax, warned Crispin Blunt, MP for Reigate, earlier today. Major problems have been exposed with the Labour Government’s plans for the regionalisation of the fire services.
Labour Ministers are currently pushing ahead with plans to replace England’s 46 local fire control rooms with 9 regional control rooms in each government office region. This project is known as FiReControl. The local fire control room in Reigate would be closed and superceded by a sprawling regional call centre based in Fareham in Hampshire. Regionalisation will result in the downgrading of many ‘tri-service’ centres, the loss of local knowledge and expertise, and significant expenditure.
Speaking earlier today Crispin Blunt said:
“Surrey’s Regional Fire Control Centre is currently based in Reigate serving the people of Surrey. The Government’s plans to move the centre some 86 miles away to Fareham will not improve the service. Larger regional centres will not have the local knowledge that can sometimes be needed when directing fire engines to an emergency. I have always argued that this scheme threatened to downgrade the quality of service for people in Surrey. The only case for it was financial, however and it now seems that as well as putting lives at risks this scheme will increase the burden on taxpayers.”
Across the country the draft business case last year admitted that the set-up costs of the project were already £400 million over its £1 billion national budget. The Fire Brigades Union has recently estimated that £278 million is being spent on management consultants, regional project directors, “change co-ordinators”, project assurance directors, PR staff, civil servants, and agency staff, to handle the restructuring.
Whilst the Government has pledged to fund centrally the increased running costs for the regional control centres, these payments are only for three years. This leaves the prospect that local fire authorities will have to pick up the bill - through cuts to other services or via increasing the fire precept on council tax. The recent regional business case admits that “additional efficiencies and/or revenue generating” will be needed. In May, the Government instructed new Regional Management Boards to deliver more “sharing of functions at a regional or sub-regional level” to deliver “efficiencies.” This raises the prospect that local fire stations face cuts – imposed at a regional level – to pay for the flawed regionalisation process.
Leaked letter reveals chaos in government
A leaked letter from the head of the new South West Regional Fire Control company to Ministers reveals widespread discontent about the Government’s plans. He warns that local fire & rescue authorities will not voluntarily submit to the Government’s regionalisation of the fire service. He criticises delays in the project, leading to “immense frustration” and “profound disappointment”. Ministers are told that “confidence amongst the company directors, our hard working officers and, we suspect, fire authorities is now rock bottom.” A cross-party Select Committee has already sounded the alarm that “there is no evidence to suggest any overall saving” and “we are unconvinced that the Government can offer the assurance of maintained or improved service quality resulting from the FiReControl project”.
Crispin Blunt added:
“The Labour Government’s expensive plans for the regionalisation of the fire control services are mired in chaos. The shambolic project is already delayed and £400 million over budget. Costs are likely to rise even more once detailed costings are finalised. I fear that local fire services serving Surrey and the Borough of Reigate and Banstead face cuts, or the fire levy on council tax will have to rise, in order to pay for the soaring bill for fire regionalisation. After a successful campaign we saw off the threat to merge Surrey Police but we now face another attempt to regionalise our emergency services for no benefit. Just as Government interference has meant rising police costs taxpayers in Surrey face an invidious choice of higher tax bills or cuts to services.”
“Labour Ministers should dump the regionalisation of local fire services. There are better ways to improve our fire services than creating distant call centres based on the arbitrary regional government boundaries.”
