Devon fire service funding gap could hit £12m if council tax frozen

A funding gap of around £12million could hit Devon’s fire service if its share of council tax is frozen over the next five years.

Documents show increasing financial pressure on the fire service, with expectations of reduced government funding coupled with higher costs.

A report prepared by Devon & Somerset Fire and Rescue Service’s finance chief, Andrew Furbear, shows the range of potential funding gaps in its medium-term financial plan, which stretches for five years.

In the worst-case scenario, where the fire service’s portion of the council tax was frozen, it is estimated there would be a potential £12.2m funding gap.

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However, if the fire service’s council tax portion does increase each year, then that gap falls to around £1m.

The choice of whether to increase or freeze the fire service’s portion of the council tax, known as a precept, is taken by the Devon & Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority.

That is made up of councillors from both Devon and Somerset, and it is due to meet next week (Tuesday, December 16) to discuss the medium-term financial plan.

The fire service has been investigating ways to save money, and most recently altered its policy on how it attends automatic fire alarms.

Prior to a consultation, it said it attended nearly 58,000 automatic fire alarms in five years, but just 1.7% of those were classed as emergencies.

The service will not now attend automatic fire alarms at industrial and commercial buildings, or retail and public assembly points, unless there are confirmed signs of fire.

But it said it would maintain out-of-term cover for schools and for residential homes, would introduce a phased approach to introduce non-attendance to automatic fire alarms during daytime hours, unless there are confirmed signs of fire.

Elsewhere, the service is negotiating with its firefighters over pay, including on-call staff. Employee expenses – £87.1m this financial year – count for more than three-quarters of the fire service’s annual spend.

The service receives part of its funding from council tax and business rates. The current council tax charge from the fire and rescue service is £104.68 a year for a Band D household.

The authority said it anticipates that in the 2026/27 financial year, a saving of £4.8m is needed due to reductions in government funding and rising costs of delivering services such as materials, energy and employment costs.

The £4.8m saving is based on a year-on-year increase of 2.99 per cent to council tax over the financial year 2026/27.

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Every one percentage point increase to council tax precept amounts to almost seven hundred thousand pounds to the service this year.

The fire service ran a survey to ascertain feedback from residents and businesses, the results of which will help inform decisions about the precept.