Halt firefighting cuts

Sir,

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is calling for a UK-wide moratorium on fire cuts amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The FBU has written to Boris Johnson and the First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to criticise the lack of preparedness among public services for the pandemic and warn leaders not to allow plans to be drawn up that reduce vital fire cover during or after the crisis.

The union is also writing to every fire authority in the country.

Firefighters have taken on 14 new areas of work to support their communities through the pandemic, delivering important results for health services and the public. They are already face-fitting PPE masks for front line NHS and care staff, delivering PPE and medical supplies, taking COVID-19 test samples, moving dead bodies, driving ambulances and delivering food and medicines to vulnerable people. But services have undergone sweeping cuts over the last 15 years, most strikingly since the beginning of austerity in 2010.

The budget for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has been cut by seven per cent in real terms since it was established in 2013, losing 990 firefighters.

The crucial value of investing in public services has never been more apparent than during the COVID-19 pandemic. We cannot return to the failed politics of slashing services then expecting them to spring into action when a crisis comes around. Brigades have been gutted by a decade of austerity, but firefighters have nonetheless taken extraordinary steps to help the fight against coronavirus. They cannot be thanked with further cuts.

There is a host of foreseeable risks that could cause the next major national emergency – not least the risk of another coronavirus wave or another pandemic. When that emergency comes, there should be a properly funded fire service ready to respond.

The Prime Minister and First Ministers have joined the public in applauding key workers each Thursday. It would be unthinkable for them to turn around and allow the slashing of fire services to continue.

Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, Kingston Upon Thames.