Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service faces challenge to fund ‘realistic pay rise’

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service could face a “perfect storm” of limited funding and the need for a “realistic pay rise”, it has warned..

The issue was highlighted at a meeting of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority last Thursday (June 16), where a report was presented about work on a financial contingency plan.

It said: “Significant events including the pandemic, the UK’s departure from the European Union and conflict within Ukraine have resulted in widespread economic uncertainty.

“This uncertainty, along with the current rate of inflation being experienced, has focussed the service on preparing business continuity plans for potential financial challenges that it may face.

“If a pay award is agreed above that budgeted in the current financial year, the service may have to bring options and recommendations to the authority later in the financial year in order to finance any pressure.”

County councillor Simon Bywater (Con, Sawtry and Stilton) questioned how the service will be impacted when it is also dealing with increased demand.

He said: “If we are under-resourced and yet we are getting 35 per cent increase from shared services, where does that leave us as a service, is there a perfect storm coming here?”

Chief Fire Officer Chris Strickland replied: “In terms of demand no, and the reason being, as a risk-based organisation we have capacity to deal with demand so we are nowhere near the level of that capacity.

“The perfect storm for us I guess is more around the funding that we have as an organisation, so the fact that we can’t raise enough money now to pay for a realistic pay rise, that is where the perfect storm arises.

“I think moving forwards unless we see some movement on the way that we raise funds to pay for the service, then yes, there is a perfect storm coming.”

Nearly two thirds of the fire service’s 2022-23 budget of £34.8million comes from the fire precept in the council tax bill. The rest is made up of government funding and grants, and money from business rates. More than three-quarters of its budget is spent on staffing.

Last year, firefighters received a 1.5 per cent pay rise, effective from July 2021.

The chair, Cllr Edna Murphy (Lib Dem, Bar Hill), said she had written to all of Cambridgeshire’s MPs to make the case for better funding for the service.

She said she had chased them up, but not all had responded.

She had met, however, with Daniel Zeichner, the Labour MP for Cambridge, who then wrote to Lucy Frazer, financial secretary to the Treasury and Tory MP for South East Cambridgeshire, on the authority’s behalf.

Ms Frazer’s office had been in contact asking for more information.

Cllr Murphy said: “We have not had any concrete feedback other than interest and understanding, but that is a positive step as far as I can see.”

Cllr Sebastian Kindersley (Lib Dem, Gamlingay) said it was “very disappointing” that some of the MPs had not responded, saying it was in “their hands to do something about this”.

In 2020-21, the service cost £35.39 per head of the population in Cambridgeshire.