Shropshire firefighters fear funding cut 'challenges' ahead as they lobby MPs over review
Fire officers are lobbying MPs to challenge ‘potential’ cuts to funding later this year, a meeting in Shropshire was told.
The Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service is concerned that a review of the way that local authorities are funded could lead to the service losing out.
Papers presented to members of the Shropshire and Wrekin Fire and Rescue Authority has listed potential future funding as one of its ‘corporate risks’.
“While there are no immediate impacts, the risk of a reduction in future funding remains for 2026/2027 onwards and therefore this will remain under review,” a meeting of the fire authority’s standards, audit and performance committee was told.
Shropshire committee members were told on Tuesday (September 30) that the service is “awaiting announcements regarding fair funding whereby it is anticipated funding is to be reduced”.
“This will have a detrimental impact on funding and has potential to impact upon delivery of services.
“To raise awareness officers are lobbying MPs to challenge these potential reductions that could impact upon local communities,” the papers read.
Committee papers say there is a “risk that the fire service may face challenges in delivering a cost-effective, high-quality service to the community due to financial pressures, resource constraints, and increasing demand”.
A Government consultation on ‘fair funding’ has ended and all fire services are awaiting announcements on what the outcome will be.
But the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has looked into early data provided by the Government and is concerned it will lead to job losses.
Fire authorities receive funding by raising a precept from the council tax.
The NFCC has urged the Government not to rely on increases in council tax demands to fill funding gaps.
Fire authorities are currently capped at £5 annual increases for Band D council tax payers.
But the NFCC says this would not offset cuts in full when factoring in the expected rate of inflation and legitimate rises in staff pay.
Phil Garrigan, who chairs the NFCC, said: “I do recognise the Government has the unenviable task of balancing public finances and they face really tough choices when it comes to funding local services, but we have to confront how precarious a position fire and rescue finances are in right now.
“Fire and rescue services cannot continue to be expected to deliver more with less.”
Shropshire’s fire authority is looking in more detail at its corporate risks following a critical inspection in 2024. Inspectors scolded the service over its ‘ineffective’ management of corporate risk.
The Government’s Department for Communities, Housing and Local Government has been contacted for comment.
