Fire Control costs set to double, FBU claims

28 Aug 08
Plans to replace 46 local fire control rooms with nine regional centres will cost more than double the government's estimates and almost nine times as much as first planned, the firefighters' union has claimed.

29 August 2008

Plans to replace 46 local fire control rooms with nine regional centres will cost more than double the government's estimates and almost nine times as much as first planned, the firefighters' union has claimed.

The Fire Brigades Union drew on a series of figures provided in parliamentary written answers to back its assertion that the controversial Fire Control scheme would cost £868m, not the £360m claimed by the government and well above an initial costing of £100m.

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said the costs included 'an army of management consultants, contractors and employment agencies swimming in taxpayers' cash'. Only £190m of the total has been earmarked by the government for the IT systems to link the nine centres in a national network – and the union believes this part of the budget will also be overspent.

It identified spending of £55.4m on consultants, with another £142m for other staffing costs. Rental costs for the control centre buildings – excluding the one for London – are set to hit £342m.

Wrack said: 'We're short of firefighters in many brigades and in desperate need of more safety-critical equipment and training. Even a fraction of this money would make an enormous difference in every fire brigade.'

In January, the Commons communities and local government select committee found that the scheme was running two years late and was set to overspend its IT budget by almost 60%.

Fire minister Parmjit Dhanda accused the FBU of 'scaremongering by misrepresenting the facts'. He added: 'They have completely ignored the significant savings that will be made from running nine nationally networked centres instead of the current 46 stand-alone outdated ones.

'Contrary to the claims made, the total cost of the project is £360m. We need the right people and skills for the job but staff costs are just 17%.'

A spokeswoman for the Local Government Association described Fire Control as 'a national project that central government have pretty much imposed on fire and rescue services, not something they chose'. She added that the LGA was now liaising with ministers and authorities to make it work.

'We want to ensure no fire and rescue authority loses out financially,' she said. The government had allocated funding for the scheme, but the LGA wanted 'to make sure the doors are kept open and there is flexibility' if extra costs emerged.

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