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The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has said it is disappointed with the final 2025/26 Local Government Finance Settlement.
Responding to the settlement announcement, NFCC Chair, Mark Hardingham, said some fire and rescue services have been left with a below-inflation increase in spending power, after the loss of government grants and employer’s national insurance contribution hike.
“The pressures on fire and rescue services’ budgets are increasing significantly, with the essential response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 recommendations and the demands posed by new and emerging risks, including being on the frontline response to climate change related extreme weather events, such as flooding, storms and wildfires, the challenges of incidents involving new and emerging technology, and regulating fire safety in an increasingly complex built environment further stretching our depleted resources.”
NFCC Chair, Mark Hardingham.
Hardingham added that fire and rescue services have seen a reduction of 25% in firefighter numbers over the last 17 years. This reality, he said, is compounded by the fact that in the last 10 years, the number of incidents that firefighters have responded to has increased by 18%.
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