Fire Chiefs respond to provisional local government finance settlement

Responding to the provisional local government finance settlement 2026-2027 to 2028-2029, National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) Chair, Phil Garrigan, said:

“This provisional settlement shows that the financial pressures being experienced by fire and rescue services are at last being acknowledged. We are seeing things starting to move in the right direction on fire and rescue service funding, but on the back of huge disinvestment in previous years there is still more to do.

“We welcome the ability for fire and rescue authorities to increase their council tax precept by £5, and the real-terms funding increase pledged to those that take up that opportunity. This reflects the engagement by NFCC on behalf of Chief Fire Officers, their authorities and the wider sector who have played their part in seeking better recognition of the critical role our services play.

“While these measures help us avoid further real-terms cuts, they do not undo a decade of reduced investment that has seen firefighter numbers fall by approximately 11,000 and nearly £1 billion lost in capital funding. Fire and rescue services are at the forefront of public safety every day, responding to increasingly complex and evolving risks, and NFCC will continue to be the strongest advocate for funding which properly reflects that reality and drives continuous improvements in the way we respond. We will now work through the detail of the settlement, but this represents an important step forward and we welcome the positive engagement we have received from government on matters of public safety.”

ENDS

Notes to editors         

• The provisional local government finance settlement 2026-2027 to 2028-29 can be found here.
• In November, the Government set out a number of changes to fire service funding in a three year settlement, which can be found here. This included:
  • Confirmation that standalone fire and rescue authorities will be permitted to increase their council tax precept by up to £5 per year (for a Band D property).
  • A pledge that standalone fire and rescue authorities who increase their council tax by the £5 per year limit will receive real terms funding increases from government.
  • A commitment to review the fire funding formula.
• Fire and Rescue services in England are carried out by standalone fire authorities in some areas, and by upper tier authorities in other areas in which fire and rescue is one of a range of local services delivered by the authority.
• Earlier this year, NFCC commissioned Somerset Council to model the impact of the Fair Funding Review 2.0 on fire and rescue authorities. The modelling was based on a series of assumptions as not enough information had emerged from government yet to fully understand the full impact of the Spending Review and Fair Funding Review 2.0. The modelling looked at both government grant funding and core spending power (grant funding plus council tax).
• This modelling showed that standalone fire and rescue authorities were facing £102 million real terms cut due to Government funding plans.
• The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) is a charity and an independent membership association and the professional voice of the UK Fire and Rescue Service. NFCC supports fire and rescue services to help them to save lives and keep their local communities safe.