By Richard Johnstone | 20 October 2014
Fire minster Penny Mordaunt has awarded £75m to 37 projects across England that are intended to improve the efficiency of blue light operations and save taxpayers over £300m.
The Fire Transformation Fund will provide the funding to 30 of the 46 different brigades in England.
Among the projects to be funded, nearly £6m will be given to Surrey to support integration of fire, police and ambulance services in the county and also in Sussex.
More than £5.5m will be made available to support the planned merger between Dorset and Wiltshire fire authorities by providing funding to extend Dorset's prevention work, while £4.7m will be given to Cumbria to deliver a new combined fire, ambulance and police centre in the county.
Announcing the winning bids, Mordaunt said fire services had been able to reduce demand on their emergency services in recent years, with fewer fires and deaths.
‘But this means the service needs to adapt – to meet new demands and to ensure it is working in the most efficient way.’
Mordaunt said it was encouraging that many bids had focused on greater collaboration with other emergency services through sharing stations and services as well as integrating back office functions.
‘This is exactly the sort of innovation that is needed across the public sector and I look forward to seeing how these projects progress,’ she added.
The fund was created following an independent review by former London fire commissioner Sir Ken Knight, which concluded fire and rescue authorities need to reform to cut costs.
He identified huge variations in cost between authorities operate, with the cost ranging from £26 per resident per year to more than £50.
If those authorities that spent more than national average were able to reduce their spending to the national average, nearly £200m a year could be saved.
Last month, Home Secretary Theresa May has said further integration of the operations of the three emergency services would be needed in the next parliament, while former policing minister Damian Green told Public Finance this could lead to local demands for services to merge.
