| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Steen: Let us forget all the abbreviations and technical details, which I realise my hon. Friend knows much more about than me. Is she saying two things? Will the whole of Devon be covered in even more aerials? All the high-technical aerials and the mobile phone aerials are going up like mushrooms. Now we will have a double lot of aerials: the fire station and police station aerials. At the same time, is it right that the smaller fire stations will probably have to go, which will put villages in rural areas at far greater risk?
Mrs. Browning: I am not sure that my hon. Friend is correct to say that there will necessarily be more masts throughout the county, but his point about where the money will come from is important. Clearly, there are huge pressures on the fire service budget and on its capital expenditure in providing for that new service in such a short time. The fire service clearly requires modern communication facilities to play its part in community safety, but by contrast with the funding support to the police, it has been allocated no additional funding.
Approximately 18 months ago, the Home Office provided individual brigades with indicative costings with regard to capital and revenue. Costs supplied by the Home Office for Devon were as follows: minimum capital costs of £1.3 million, to a maximum of £4.4 million; minimum revenue costs of £0.31 million, to a maximum of £1.02 million. More recent costings by Devon fire and rescue service anticipate capital costs of about £1.3 million and revenue costs of about £0.46 million.
If the Devon costings of £1.3 million and £0.46 million are considered a benchmark for other fire authorities, fire service radio replacement nationally is likely to cost about £75 million in capital costs and £27 million in on-going revenue costs--hence my pointing out that, in today's
announcement, we noticed that on-going revenue costs were allocated to the police because of their change, but there was apparently nothing for the fire service. That comes against a background of many fire authorities spending significant amounts in excess of standard spending assessment to maintain current provision of services.The widening gap between SSA provision and what authorities are spending to maintain current service is well documented, the most recent case being outlined in the report of the Home Office's service expenditure forecasting group (fire) on 2001-02 to 2003-04. Devon will spend approximately 17.9 per cent. above SSA in 2001-02, with a projected pensions deficit of 14.3 per cent.
It is a critical period. As the Minister will be aware, the peaks and troughs in retirement of personnel show that the move could not have come at a worse time. Retirements are due to peak at the same time as the fire service is having to make the new provisions.
The increases in SSA and the basic credit approvals recently announced are welcome, but the SSA increase of 5 per cent. for 2001-02 and 4 per cent. for the following two years will not provide for the closing of the gap between the SSA and actual budget spending. Again, the basic credit approvals increases need to be viewed against the poor property profile of many fire authorities, including Devon; the increasing need to seek capital solutions in other areas of budget need--for example, information technology; and an authority's ability to make additional revenue implications of capital spend.
I hope that the Minister appreciates that this is not a case of Devon fire and rescue saying that they want more money simply because they need a new system. Even without that challenge, the service is struggling to maintain its current revenue and capital commitments. So although the announcements on SSA and basic credit approvals are welcome, they will not provide funding for radio replacement options.
In his reply, the Minister of State said that various representations had been made from the fire services. He also implied that best-value reviews and guidance in the joint control study report and the future radio replacement report would provide a way forward for the fire service. However, as Devon fire and rescue has told me, the control room study report does not address the issue of radio replacement. Although joint or shared control rooms may offer longer-term savings, they do not offer solutions to short-term funding requirements for radio replacement.
Practical implementation of a move to joint or shared control room facilities will take some years. However, radio replacement is required now. Although best-value reviews into control rooms and communications are encouraging authorities to seek collaborative solutions to radio replacement and to analyse joint or shared control room operations, they will not provide funding.
In May, the Minister of State said that the second Home Office report would provide guidance on radio replacement to help fire services. However, although some of that information is now available, it does not solve the immediate problem. On 19 July 2000, at a central fire brigades advisory council, it was made clear that pressures on fire authorities for radio replacement were not compatible with the time scales for reviewing
joint control rooms. That acknowledgement was recently reinforced with the Fire Brigades Union's publication of its opposition to the joint control study report.We accept that communications are a vital aspect of providing a modern fire service that is able to contribute to community safety, and that Devon fire and rescue service, with other authorities, will have to replace its radio scheme by December 2002. Devon and Cornwall police, who provide the service with a radio facility, have given notice that the facility will have to be replaced by that date. Although options of joint or shared controls and the results of best-value reviews may produce savings in the long term, they do not help to meet the challenge initially facing Devon fire and rescue.
There is an inequity in recognising the implementation costs and continuing revenue implications for police, while making no additional funding provision for the fire service. Communications are a vital element of both services. The discrepancy is even more incongruous given the windfall that the Government have received from the sale of the frequency spectrum. The auction has raised a huge sum far exceeding what the Chancellor could ever have imagined he would receive.
The Government have encouraged fire authorities to seek collaboration and joint procurement options. I hope that the Minister is aware that the Devon fire authority has been very willing to seek such options. Indeed, it is working with Avon, Somerset and Dorset counties on reducing procurement costs and taking advantage of economies of scale.
I am, however, very concerned that, even as recently as the beginning of this month, on 9 November, in a letter to the hon. Member for Exeter (Mr. Bradshaw)--the letter is now in the public domain, and I have given notice to the hon. Gentleman that I would be mentioning it--the Minister himself seemed to demonstrate that he was not aware of the time constraints facing the Devon fire and rescue service. Quite clearly, he seemed to be under the impression--I hope that he will reassure us today that he has taken this point on board--that there were five years in which to address the issue.
The Minister is pointing at the time. I am very willing to let him reply now, because I hope that he will be able to give us some reassurance that the Home Office will sympathetically consider the predicament of the Devon fire and rescue service.
12.50 am
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Mike O'Brien): I congratulate the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Mrs. Browning) on securing this debate. I would have hoped to have had a longer opportunity to deal in more detail with the concerns that she expressed, but she took up 20 minutes of this 30-minute debate--although I fully understand the importance that she and her constituents attach to the quality of the fire service in Devon, as well as the issues relating to radio replacement.
We have good reason to be proud of our fire service. Its high level of performance in response to emergency calls has been confirmed year after year by the Audit Commission. On the latest figures published by the commission, the fire service nationally in 1998-99 met attendance standards in responding to fire calls on
96 per cent. of occasions. In Devon, even that excellent performance was bettered, with attendance standards being met on 97.1 per cent. of occasions.I will take no lessons from the hon. Lady on the subject of funding support for the fire service. The real-terms increases provided by this Government, both revenue and capital, are significantly better than those provided in the last years of the Conservative Administration in which she served. She may complain about fire service funding now, but she supported the starving of the fire service.
Mr. John Burnett (Torridge and West Devon): The fire service in London is a separate precepting authority, as are the police. Does the Minister agree that it would be a good idea for crucial services such as the Devon fire and rescue service to have the same arrangement, so that it can plan for changes in communications and such in the long term?
Mr. O'Brien: That is an interesting issue. The Government are currently holding consultations on local government funding, and no doubt the Devon service could make submissions.
Under the central-local partnership arrangements we work closely with fire service interests to assess future funding pressures and we have taken those into account in both spending reviews. The outcome of spending review 2000 is that fire authorities in England will get an overall increase in the fire service element of standard spending assessment of £189.2 million over the next three years, including £69.1 million--that is 5 per cent. more--for 2001-02, followed by an increase of 4 per cent. in each of the two subsequent years.
We announced earlier today that, for 2001-02, the fire standard spending assessment for Devon will provisionally be increased by 4.4 per cent., following the 4.5 per cent. that was received this year. As part of spending review 2000, we are also significantly boosting our support for fire service capital. Planned credit approvals for the service in England and Wales will be increased by 67 per cent. from their present level of £35.7 million, to £59.7 million in 2001-02. The provision will be sustained at that level in 2002-03 and increased by a further £2 million to £61.7 million in 2003-04. I have announced that a significant proportion--£10 million of the provision for 2001-02--will be issued as a supplementary credit approval specifically for the promotion of equality and diversity in the service.
Spending review 2000 represents overall, I believe, a very satisfactory outcome for the fire service. It will help to deliver the outcomes that really matter, reducing the number of fires and fire deaths in the home through a greater emphasis on fire safety and prevention. At the same time, it rightly sets challenging efficiency targets. The spending totals are based on an assumption that a 2 per cent. improvement in efficiency will be achieved each year. The best value process that the Government have introduced from 1 April will play a key role in helping fire authorities to identify and achieve those efficiencies.
I am well aware of the concerns that Devon fire and rescue service has about funding issues. In July I met a delegation representing those fire authorities, including
Devon, which serve large rural areas. I took careful note of the problems they identified, particularly in relation to the current arrangements for distributing funding.The cause of the problem is the standard spending assessment formula that we inherited, and it needs to change. The Home Office has been involved in a fundamental review of local government finance, in particular the perverse funding incentives, which we inherited in relation to the fire funding formula. The incentives have caused a lot of problems not only in Devon but in many other parts of the country. For example, funding is reduced if the number of fire calls are reduced. Such decisions need to be changed and we are committed to doing that.
On radio communications, we understand and acknowledge the need for fire authorities to replace their wide-area radio schemes in the period up to 2005. Indeed, we took account of this in the previous spending review.
The hon. Lady referred to the arrangements for the police. The police service has a national strategy in place and a public safety radio communication service known as Airwave is in the process of being introduced. We are convinced that the police will draw considerable benefit from that cohesive approach, which is supported by appropriate funding arrangements.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |