New Fire Stations On The Way

£130 million has been set aside for Fire and Rescue Service projects to build new stations and other facilities, Fire Minister Sadiq Khan announced today.

Fire and Rescue Services have been bidding for a share of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credits for long-term projects to modernise the country's fire stations. Communities and Local Government announced the latest funding round in July.
Cleveland, Country Durham and Darlington, Northumberland, Staffordshire and Surrey Fire and Rescue Services have all now been selected to develop their proposals in more detail.

In anticipation, Communities and Local Government is setting aside £60 million in PFI funding for the joint Cleveland, County Durham and Darlington and Northumberland proposal, £30 million for the Staffordshire proposal and £35 million for the proposal from Surrey Fire and Rescue Service.

The projects are:

• A joint project covering Cleveland, County Durham and Darlington and Northumberland: provision of new community fire stations, a headquarters building, a youth academy;
• Staffordshire: provision of new rural community fire stations, an interactive learning facility and enhanced training facility;
• Surrey: new community fire stations will be developed to replace existing stations which are now out-of-date;
• PFI projects across the country are enabling the building of modern fire stations operating at the heart of their communities, replacing old and inadequate facilities.
  Modernising FRS facilities is a key part of the Government's commitment to reducing accidental fire related deaths at home by 20% and arsons by 10% by 2010.

According to Fire Minister Sadiq Khan:

"We need 21 Century fire stations that are effective at welcoming the public as well as keeping them safe and provide good working conditions for our firefighters.

"That's why with these projects we have invested over £500 million so far through PFI on new stations, equipment, training facilities and safety centres.

"For this latest round of funding we set out a tough criteria and the standard of submissions was very high.

"But three proposals were particularly impressive and I'm delighted to announce that we have set aside £125 million for projects in Cleveland, County Durham and Darlington, Northumberland, Surrey and Staffordshire."

This is the first time Cleveland and Surrey have received PFI funding.

Surrey FRS currently has 24 fire stations that were built for a different era and are not deemed fit for purpose as well as carrying an £11m maintenance backlog. Their plans will be to develop stations to replace some 14 existing ones. This will lead to more equitable levels of emergency cover to a greater number of people who live, work or visit Surrey.

Staffordshire FRS has plans to replace up to 20 predominately rural fire stations with new integrated community facilities and to develop an interactive learning facility and an enhanced training facility at the headquarters.

The joint Cleveland, County Durham and Darlington and Northumberland project will deliver new community fire stations across the North East as well as a Headquarters facility, youth academy and technical services centre for Cleveland Fire and Rescue Service.

In addition, a further £5.5 million will be allocated to the London Fire Brigade to assist with their existing PFI project of replacing up to ten existing fire stations across the capital. This is in addition to £52 million in PFI funding already set aside by Communities and Local Government for the project.

For editors:

1. In July Government announced the availability of approximately £130 million in investment under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) for the English Fire and Rescue Service.
2. Fire and rescue authorities were invited to submit proposals for projects by 19 September 2008.
3. 11 Expressions of Interest were submitted with a capital value in excess of £500 million.
4. The FRS PFI Programme has been running since 1997 with the first pathfinder scheme run by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service reaching contract signature in 1998. Since that time nearly £400 million has been invested in the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) under the PFI (bringing the total investment to over £0.5 billion with these new projects). This has provided 40 new buildings for the FRS, including fire stations, HQ buildings, training and technical service centres, as well as providing 540 vehicles and 20,000 items of operational equipment for the whole of the London Fire Brigade.
5. A further five schemes are in procurement or pre-procurement which will deliver a further 47 new buildings. 

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