Fire bosses issue warning on cuts
HIGHER THAN EXPECTED PAY RISE COULD CAUSE SHORTFALL
TYNE and Wear’s fire service has warned it could be forced to make “difficult” cuts next year unless the government covers the cost of pay rises.
Finance bosses have issued a gloomy prediction that the organisation could soon be facing a shortfall of more than £1m and have to slash frontline services to make up the gap.
While backing calls for a substantial pay rise for firefighters, the area’s chief fire officer, councillors, and the Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) pleaded with the government to protect fire and rescue services amid warnings of a “tsunami” of money struggles as the cost of living crisis bites local authorities as well as households.
Members of the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Authority were told on Wednesday the service could be left with a £1.3m burden if national pay agreements result in higher than expected rises for staff.
Finance director Dennis Napier said officials had “underestimated” the scale of the cost of living crisis, with inflation having rocketed to more than 9.4%, when budgeting for 3% staff pay rises this year and now faced “quite a significant shock” to the balance sheet.
Fire service support staff are being offered a £1,925 pay rise, averaging out to a 7.32% increase in the Tyne and Wear service (TWFRS) and putting a £341,000 unfunded cost on the organisation’s budget for this year. Mr Napier hypothesised that a similar agreement for firefighters would bring the total overspend to £1.3m, though no such offer has been made yet.
The Fire Brigades Union has rejected a proposed 2% pay rise and warned its members “have never taken industrial action lightly but nor can we allow this pay insult to pass without challenge”.
Tyne and Wear’s chief fire officer, Chris Lowther, said all fire service staff should get a real-terms pay rise this year – but that the money must come from central government.
There are also concerns the rising price of steel could push up the cost of a new £8m “tri station” due to be built in Hebburn.