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Mr. Austin-Walker: I agree with my hon. Friend.I am intimately concerned about Greenwich, which is in a neighbouring constituency. It is true that East Greenwich fire station, which is east of the millennium site, is to lose an appliance, as is Deptford fire station, to the west of the site, which is eventually scheduled for closure. That problem in London must be addressed.
The major difficulties faced by the fire authorities stem from the local government settlement for the current year and the next. Last year's settlement, which was generally
accepted to be one of the most difficult on record, meant a planned overall increase of 3.3 per cent. in public expenditure, whereas most local authorities were required to manage budget increases limited to 0.5 per cent. No increase in provision was made for the fire service and the spending caps remained screwed down. The 1996-97 settlement shows little change, with an increase of just1.5 per cent.
I accept that the SSA formula now includes a pensions element, but that is not the same as injecting additional money to cover costs. Nationally, the settlement for 1996-97 represents a cut in real terms of £70 million. That is the shortfall between actual budgets and the settlement. In London, that means a gap of £7 million. The 1995-96 budget of £258 million would need to be increased to £266 million to maintain current levels of service--a service already "cut to the bone", in the words of a former chief officer.
Some rather over-enthusiastic prospective Conservative parliamentary candidates in London, worried by the growing tide of public anger at threats to their fire stations, swallowed whole the propaganda from Tory central office. Those candidates were ready to rush into print in their local newspapers to say that it was all the fault of a wicked plan by a Labour-controlled authority which could not manage its finances. If only, instead of relying on the provenly unreliable central office machine, they had consulted their own Tory colleagues on the London fire authority. They should have read the letter, jointly signed by the leader of that authority, the leader of the Conservative group, Councillor Adrian Fitzgerald and the leader of the Liberals, Councillor Rowlands. If those candidates had consulted Tory councillors on that authority, they would have realised that the statements made by Baroness Blatch in her letter to hon. Members were at best misleading and that the document from Tory central office was a total distortion of the facts.
I regret that the SSA formula does not measure real fire cover needs. It is important to consider risk categorisation. Attendance times--and hence resources--are based on that categorisation. I welcome the comments of the Audit Commission in its report of last year, "In the Line of Fire". The categorisation of risk dates back to the days when insurance companies ran the fire service and graded their risks on the basis of property liability and not the saving of lives.
Many modern buildings incorporate sophisticated fire prevention and detection features, something which is absent from most inner-city and urban homes. It is in densely populated urban areas, however, that most deaths occur. Under the Government's categorisation of risk, most urban areas of terraced, detached and semi-detached housing and blocks of flats are categorised as C risk. That means that one fire engine should be sent to arrive at a fire within eight to 10 minutes. I believe that the current level of service in London is appropriate. The fire authority treats a domestic fire in a C risk area as one in a B risk area, where policy dictates that two appliances should be sent--one to arrive within five minutes and the second within eight minutes. There have been countless instances in London in which the lives of members of the public and of firefighters would have been lost if just one appliance had been sent to a house fire and arrived within 10 minutes. In some of the outer areas of London,
including parts of my constituency, properties are categorised as D risk--which means that one fire appliance is sent, to arrive within 20 minutes. Thankfully, it is the policy of the London fire authority, supported by Conservative councillors on that authority, to send two appliances to any house fire.
Mr. Nigel Spearing (Newham, South):
I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for his comprehensive account. Can he tell me whether an arrival time of 20 minutes is sanctioned by the Home Office?
Mr. Austin-Walker:
I regret to say that it is.
The Minister of State replied to my Adjournment debate on the fire service on 9 February and the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the hon. Member for Bolton, West (Mr. Sackville), replied to a debate initiated by my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham, East on 1 February. Both Ministers said that the London fire authority could make cuts and still meet the Home Office's recommended attendance times, and they were probably telling the truth. The Under-Secretary of State quoted the authority's report, which said that the reductions could be made
What Ministers did not admit, however, is that that guarantee represents a dramatic reduction in service. Following the intervention of my hon. Friend the Member for Newham, South (Mr. Spearing), I ask the Minister whether he thinks it reasonable that a fire in a flat on the Glyndon estate in Plumstead should be responded to by one fire engine, arriving in 10 minutes, without any further back-up. If he does, I must tell him that lives will be lost. The later an appliance reaches the scene of a fire, the greater the risk to the building and to any occupants, and the later a firefighter arrives, the greater the risk to him or her from flames, suffocation or falling debris--as in the case of Fleur Lombard.
Cheshire's chief fire officer makes the point that fast arrival is just the beginning; what then comes into play is the equipment, the back-up and the fact that the crews are well trained. A fire dealt with at its inception is much easier to extinguish than one that has taken hold. That makes sense financially, too, as resources are tied up for less time, allowing other incidents to be dealt with. If the fire gets worse before an engine arrives, the crew will be there much longer and will be unable to respond to other calls. If a crew turns up and there are people to be rescued, it can usually rely on the second crew to do resuscitation and first aid. The first few minutes are vital.
The health and safety of crews is also at risk when just one appliance is used and approved procedures have to be ignored. Imagine a fire on the 20th floor of one of the blocks on the Glyndon estate. The five firefighters have to take into the building two lengths of hose, two sets of breathing apparatus, one branch, one adaptor, one breathing apparatus control board, one dividing breach, one radio, breaking-in gear, a first aid kit, one or two axes and a resuscitator. The officer in charge must stay downstairs to implement command and control; the driver operates the pump to ensure that the water gets upstairs and another firefighter will set in the hydrant and dry riser to allow the passage of water. That leaves two firefighters to carry all that equipment. There is no breathing control officer and no one to carry out first aid.
Such is the result of a one-appliance response, with which the Minister seems quite content. Does he believe that a one-appliance response within 10 minutes is adequate in such a situation? That is, after all, the Home Office minimum standard. Minimum standards should be a safeguard for the public. Instead, those standards are being used as a lever to cut spending. As the screw tightens, either the service copes, but at a cost in terms of quality, reliability and morale--the lowering of any one of which puts lives at risk--or a major disaster occurs. It has not yet happened on a large scale, but any fire officer can cite one example after another of instances in which the outcome could have been disastrous. Every turn of the screw brings us closer to that disaster.
In the debate on 9 February, I compared two incidents in Woolwich. One took place when Shooters hill fire station had two appliances, and the other when it had one. In the first, four people in Rowton road were saved. In the second, in Llanover road, four people died; I do not claim that they would have survived if two appliances had been available, but it remains in the minds of everyone involved in that incident that a second appliance might have made all the difference.
As I have said, some parts of Woolwich are categorised as D risk. The Minister believes that it is reasonable for a fire in property there to be dealt with by one engine, arriving within 20 minutes. Thank goodness a Labour councillor and not the Minister is in charge of the London fire authority.
"without affecting the Authority's ability to meet Home Office recommended times."
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