THE Government has been blasted for spending millions of pounds on management consultants in the fire service while union leaders fear front-line cuts could put lives at risk..
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and MPs today launched a scathing broadside against Ministers after it emerged £29m had been spent on consultants since 2006 – enough to pay for 1,000 front-line firefighters.
A further £15m has been spent on temporar
y staff by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), which is charged with overseeing the nation's fire cover. That would pay for a further 570 firefighters.
It is understood that most of the money has been spent on a radio system project which has been delayed for 18 months as well as the creation of a new network of nine regional fire control centres.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears,will now be asked to justify the vast sums which have been spent on consultants' fees.
The Labour MP for Sheffield Attercliffe, Clive Betts, who is also a member of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, will submit a Parliamentary question at the start of next month when the Commons reconvenes.
He said: "The Select Committee has been critical about the Government's plans to overhaul the fire service with projects such as the regional control centres, as we stated no proper business case had been prepared.
"These are major projects but the amount spent on consultants needs to be looked at closely."
The Government's controversial plans to replace England's existing 46 fire control rooms faced another blow after it emerged that the regionalised scheme was three years late, according to figures obtained by the FBU.
The cost of running the nine regional control centres – including one in Wakefield to cover the Yorkshire and Humber region – until 2021 is now expected to top £1.4bn, although the DCLG stressed this would represent a saving on the current system.
But the first regional control centres are now not due to open until October 2009, almost three years after initially predicted, according to the union.
As the cost of consultants' fees emerged, the FBU general secretary, Matt Wrack, said: "This soaring spending on consultants is a national scandal. Consultants are swimming in cash, while this year during the floods fire crews had to wade through water filled with excrement without even welly boots to protect them.
"Cash-starved fire authorities are looking at station closures and the loss of frontline firefighter jobs while consultants are cashing in."
The revelations come only a fortnight after the North Yorkshire brigade warned of a financial crisis, receiving just a one per cent increase in Government funding for the new financial year.
The proposed rise would equate to an extra £127,000 in central Government funding on the current budget of £29.2m.
Te Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, Phil Willis, condemned the vast sums paid to consultants and said more funding should be ploughed directly into England's fire service.
Mr Willis, a staunch critic of Government policies to overhaul fire cover nationally, said: "The whole situation beggars belief. Not only is the public having to pay for the money spent on consultants but it is undermining the service which is supposed to be benefiting."
The Chief Fire Officers Association has also warned the national service faces "tough financial challenges" in 2008.
But the DCLG said it was "nonsense" to suggest the fire service faced funding cuts and maintained an average 2.4 per cent increase was planned.
A spokesman added: "Deaths and injuries from fire are at their lowest since records began. This consultancy spending is to ensure that the trend continues and the Government investment in the service is well spent."
