The comments made by Nigel Farage, the former leader of the Brexit Party, on 21 March 2021.
In Bristol tonight we see what the soft-headed approach to the anti-police BLM leads to.
Wake up everyone, this is not about racial justice.
These people want all-out anarchy and street violence.
The statement made by Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Shadow Home Secretary, on 21 March 2021.
Awful, shocking scenes in Bristol.
There is no excuse whatsoever for this violence.
Thinking of those officers who have been injured, and their families, and wishing them a swift recovery.
The statement made by Will White from Avon and Somerset Police on 21 March 2021.
What started out as a peaceful protest has been turned by a small minority into a violent disorder.
These scenes are absolutely disgraceful and they will be widely condemned by people across the city. There can never be any excuse for wanton disorder.
Officers have been subjected to considerable levels of abuse and violence. One suffered a broken arm and another suffered broken ribs. Both have been taken to hospital. These are men and women out there with the intention of serving and protecting the public – they should never be subjected to assaults or abuse in this way.
At least two police vehicles have been set on fire and damage has been caused to the outside of the station. Protestors are not inside the building.
We have requested mutual aid from neighbouring forces to bring this incident to a safe conclusion.
All those involved in this criminal behaviour will be identified and brought to justice. There will be significant consequences for behaviour such as this.
The comments made by Sean Ivey, a former marine whose house was attacked following this intervention, on anti-social behaviour, on 17 March 2021. A JustGiving page was set up after the destruction caused to Ivey’s property.
TIME FOR CHANGE!!!
Last night, four males walked into my Mam and Dad’s house and robbed them. They were carrying weapons and threatened them both. They stole money, alcohol and very personal belongings with great sentimental value. And another thing, this was at 7.30! Half 7 at night and they just walked in!
What the hell is going on!!!!!
At the weekend, I had a run in with a young male riding like a lunatic on an off-road bike in Shotton and causing damage to people’s property. The following day I saw another riding down Wingate front street, pulling wheelies and mounting the paths.
Groups of young lads have been see riding around on quads through Wingate, Station Town, Shotton, Wheatley Hill, Thornley etc, with absolutely no consideration for the public. They also caused 1000’s of pounds worth of damage to a local airfield.
A local councillor recently had his car set on fire right in front of his bedroom and so the flames burst through the window, causing damage to his house. Another elderly man was broken into, assaulted and burgled in his bungalow a couple of years ago.
Young people are congregating outside of Wingate Tandoori, hurling abuse at passers by and throwing objects at cars. Due to the abuse and damage to his car, one delivery driver for the Tandoori had to leave… this has affected his livelihood!
I was speaking to one lady who works in Wingate and lives near the point where these youngsters are congregating. She gets a lift home because she is afraid of walking past them!!! And this is not a single case!
Once upon a time, these were isolated incidents but unfortunately, they are not anymore.
Something really has to change!!! I don’t know how and I do not know what we can do but I think it’s time that the people, the good people of our communities, got together and come up with some ideas to hopefully get rid of these thugs and clean up our streets.
People are afraid of reporting incidents to the police because of the potential repercussions. Kids are being kept on much shorter leashes because parents are afraid of what may happen to them.
To that end, I am calling on the local Parish Councils to call public meetings and get a real idea of how we really feel living amongst these criminals, and then WORK TOGETHER (NOT INDIVIDUALLY!), to get them off our streets. They move and cause damage from one place to another so there has got to be something done which targets the area as a whole, not just Wingate or Horden or Wheatley Hill etc!!!
EVERYONE! It’s also time for our local council representatives to earn your wage and help us come up with some solutions. The police cannot do it alone because they don not have the man power and they need the evidence to arrest and convict.
If you’re as pissed off as I am then please write to your local councils and bombard them with orders that something must be done.
The letter written by Anneliese Dodds, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, to Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 20 March 2021.
Dear Chancellor,
I wanted to raise my concerns with you directly about a report in the Financial Times on 18 March 2021 regarding Greensill Capital’s access to state-backed emergency Covid-19 loan schemes.
As you may be aware, the report suggests that the former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron lobbied Her Majesty’s Treasury personally on behalf of Greensill Capital. It also alleges that you personally intervened to request meetings between the bank and Treasury officials, and cites a freedom of information request detailing an official summary of a conversation prepared for the Second Permanent Secretary to the Treasury following a meeting with Greensill representatives that states: “At the Chancellor’s request you [the Second Permanent Secretary] took a call from Greensill last night (May 14). You set out that no decision had yet been taken but the Chancellor had asked you to revert to them on two points.”
Public records further show that several meetings took place between your officials and representatives of the bank between March and June 2020. Your officials met five of the 27 accredited CLBILS lenders during this period: Greensill, RBS, Lloyd’s Bank, Santander and Barclays. The records show that officials met with Greensill on ten separate occasions compared to just two with Santander and one each with Lloyd’s, RBS and Barclays. The other 22 accredited lenders for the scheme are not reported to have met with Treasury officials at all.
It appears that after initial attempts by Greensill to secure access to the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility were unsuccessful, the bank was later accepted as an accredited lender and partner of the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Scheme and granted permission to issue these loans – 80 per cent of which were guaranteed by the UK Government – up to a maximum of £50 million. It has since been reported in The Sunday Times that Greensill issued eight of these taxpayer-backed loans – a total of £400 million – to Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance group and companies linked to him. While the BBB has now withdrawn the guarantees for these loans, Greensill is still listed on its website as an accredited lender and partner for the CLBILS scheme.
The revelations in the FT article raise extremely serious questions for your Government. I am concerned that it appears Greensill Capital was granted so much access to the Treasury at a time when the representatives of the millions of people excluded from the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme were asking for your time and support to find a solution to the issues with that scheme. This is made even more serious and urgent given Greensill’s subsequent collapse.
I would like to seek clarity from you on this issue and others raised in the FT article, specifically in answer to the following questions:
As Chancellor, it is your duty to protect the public finances. The public deserve urgent and clear answers to these questions so they can be reassured that the decision to make Greensill an accredited lender for the CLBILS scheme was taken with due diligence.
Best wishes,
Anneliese Dodds
The statement made by Brandon Lewis, the then Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government, on 19 December 2012.
On 12 September 2001, the then Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions announced plans to give taxpayer-funded pensions to councillors, through access to the local government pension scheme.
The proposals came into force in 2003. The Councillors’ Commission report of the last administration noted that 912 councillors in England had joined that pension scheme by 2004. A Taxpayers’ Alliance survey in February 2009, across the whole United Kingdom, found that 3,527 councillors had pensions as of 2007 to 2008; a further survey in January 2012 found that figure had increased to 4,548 councillors by 2010 to 2011. The trend is clear.
Abolition of taxpayer-funded pensions
Ministers in this government take a fundamentally different view to the last administration. We do not believe that taxpayer-funded pensions are justified. Councillors are volunteers undertaking public service; they are not and should not be employees of the council dependent on the municipal payroll. They are not professional, full-time politicians, nor should they be encouraged to become so.
Councillors do not receive a salary; rather, they receive allowances to compensate for their out-of-pocket expenses. Yet following changes made by the last administration, allowances have slowly become a form of salary, a situation worsened by the state-funded pensions. This is a corrosive influence on local democracy and independent thought, blurring the distinction between council staff and councillors.
Every bit of the public sector needs to do its bit to help pay off the deficit inherited from the last administration. Local government grants are being reduced. Ministers have cut and then frozen their salaries. Public sector pensions, including parliamentary pensions, are being reformed to reduce the burden on taxpayers. It is only right that councillors do their bit as well.
We do not believe that an occupational pension scheme intended for employees, and paid for by taxpayers, is an appropriate vehicle for councillors.
Existing pension rights
Subject to consultation, we propose that there will be no access for councillors to the local government pension scheme in England from April 2014. In the interests of fairness, those councillors already in the scheme would have their accrued rights up to April 2014 fully protected, but would not be able to accrue any further benefits after that date in the existing scheme.
This will not prevent councillors contributing to a personal pension: if they put aside part of their (taxable) allowances into such a pension, then that is a matter for them; they will continue to receive income tax relief like any ordinary member of the population, subject to the prevailing tax rules.
Although central records on councillors’ participation in the scheme are not held by my department, initial rough estimates suggest that this could save £7 million a year in taxpayers’ money. There is absolutely no case for increasing councillor allowances to compensate. Instead, councils may want to consider earlier, voluntary closure of the scheme to their councillors as a sensible saving.
Civic duty
Eligibility regulations for the local government pension scheme are overseen by my department. Although this is a centrally mandated change (as was its original introduction), we believe these reforms will assist localism and local democracy by encouraging a greater separation between councillors and officers. Robust local scrutiny of council spending requires councillors to be substantively independent of means and of thought from the body they are overseeing. Civic duty should not be bought.
We do not believe it will have any detrimental effect on people choosing to become councillors. The best thing we can do to encourage more people to take part in municipal public life is to decentralise power to local communities so being a councillor is a meaningful and rewarding role.
Elected mayors
We recognise that there is a greater expectation that an elected mayor is a full-time position. We therefore propose to consult on allowing elected mayors to remain in the scheme as a voluntary option (but not as an expectation), subject to local scrutiny, challenge and determination. The salaries of the mayor of London, members of the Greater London Assembly and police and crime commissioners will remain pensionable.
Timing
Statutory consultation is required and will commence in due course, as part of the planned consultation on the wider reform of the local government pension scheme. We will consult with the Welsh Assembly government in respect of access to the local government pension scheme for councillors in Wales.
As a former councillor myself, I would like to pay tribute to their often unsung and ongoing work in standing up for their local residents. We hope these reforms will further strengthen the integrity and independence of councillors and increase the respect within their communities for the voluntary work they undertake as champions of the people.
The comments made by Brandon Lewis, the then Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government, on 5 December 2012.
I am delighted to announce we are giving Pub is The Hub £150,000 for their project. The government is taking decisive action to support community pubs including doubling business rate relief, which gives up to 100% discounts for small firms including pubs and postponing revaluation will also avoid local pubs facing an 11% rise in their business rates bills.
This is on top of abolishing the last government’s cider tax, cutting red tape on live music in pubs and stopping unfair sales of alcohol below cost-price by supermarkets. We have given councils powers to offer local business rate discounts and the Community Right to Bid lets communities protect their pubs and guard against their unnecessary loss.
The comments made by Brandon Lewis, the then Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government, on 29 November 2012.
Introduction
Welcome. It’s great to see so many people from right across the local authority spectrum here today.
And the issues we’re discussing couldn’t be more pressing. In fact, they go to the very heart of why we entered public life in the first place.
Complex issues require local responses
Now, the one thing I have learned as a local councillor and as an MP is that in every local area you will find a complex cauldron of issues requiring a sophisticated local response.
So, in my old patch of Essex, they’re wrestling with the increasing demands of an elderly population on overstretched hospitals and care homes. But they’re also wondering how to address the rise in re-offending and domestic violence.
Meanwhile, up the other end of the country, in West Cheshire, they are looking to deal with persistent pockets of long-term unemployment, and low-economic activity. And they too are having to face down the problems of domestic violence.
The pilots
Our pilots were set up precisely to address these entrenched, many sided issues.
We know these are the sorts of things governments have been talking about tackling since the year dot. But the point is our pioneers are actually involved in something radically different from what’s gone before.
In the old days, we grew used to the man from the ministry dipping into his ever diminishing bag of tricks and pulling out another quango. We got used to broad brush, one-size fits all solutions – which actually suited nobody.
What we ended up with were ill-thought through, inefficient and unnecessarily expensive, public service silos.
We saw cash funnelled to places that were most likely getting funds from another quarter.
We saw, in Essex’s case, the proliferation of services – a staggering array of eighty agencies and over 116 phone numbers offering services to victims of domestic abuse.
And we witnessed inequality, lack of access – a society less free, less fair and less united.
I’m no actuary but when I heard that some London boroughs spend more than £25,000 on an individual with serious health conditions and less than £300 on those with minor health conditions, I sense a problem…
Example of the problem: West Cheshire
But, you only really get a sense of the problem when you start to consider the people.
So let’s consider the experience of one woman from West Cheshire. For the sake of her privacy let’s call her Jane.
Jane’s husband has been going through a difficult time since he lost his job and he’s started drinking. One day Jane calls the police and reports her husband for hitting her.
But, as her GP knows, this isn’t the first time it’s happened. It’s the 30th. And, shockingly, that’s not untypical. Nationally it takes on average 34 incidents before domestic abuse is reported.
And it’s no coincidence that (in West Cheshire) £1.2 million is spent by GPs on managing the consequences of domestic abuse.
Back to the story. The police assess Jane’s husband as a standard risk and order him to stay away. But within days he’s back. Smashing down the front door, putting Jane in hospital and later finding himself in prison.
West Cheshire: the solution
Now West Cheshire realised the tragedy of this situation, was that it could have been avoided. They found that almost all of the £20 million spent on dealing with its 9,000 cases of domestic abuse was reactive.
So thanks to a subtle rewiring of the system they will now make sure Jane doesn’t have to end up in a hospital bed before anyone raises the alarm.
What will they be doing differently?
First, they’ve recognised prevention is better than cure. So they’ve developed a volunteer outreach programme providing mentoring support. It’s made up of people who have been through what Jane’s been through.
Second, they’ve understood that local people can easily get bewildered by the many different “front doors” agencies. So they are ensuring Jane has a single point of contact. Someone to work with her whole family to join up the dots. That way Jane will speak to the right people at the right time to get the support she needs.
And thirdly, West Cheshire have made sure all relevant local services are in on the act. The police, local authorities, GPs and voluntary services all working together. So Jane will get beefed up security. While her husband will be made to face up to his actions and helped with his broader drinking problems.
Delivering in this way will make a real difference to the whole family and at the same time it will save the public purse £17 million over the next five years.
Local people at the heart of the system
What’s key to West Cheshire, to its fellow pilots, to the whole of our open public service reform programme – of which these initiatives form an integral part – is that they put local people at the heart of the system.
People’s lives are complicated enough. We don’t need to make things even more confusing. What we do need to do is reduce dependency and give individuals a greater sense of independence.
We know our services would be better if they were more responsive to local peoples’ needs, better serving the people that pay for them and use them.
Equally, different areas work best when you, our public sector leaders are unconstrained. What’s more, free people up to innovate and they come up with ingenious, inventive solutions to complex, previously unsolved problems.
And the magic of this approach is that it will save money. Lots of it. Greater Manchester alone, for example, reckons that improving its early years service will save £215 million over the next couple of decades for each year-group of children.
Radical? Revolutionary? Perhaps. But isn’t it also plain common sense?
There’s plenty more I could say about the pilots. About how they’ve got eight Whitehall departments working hand in glove with local authorities. About how we’ve taken civil servants out of their ivory tower and parachuted them into the places where the problems lie. About how we’ve managed to get people from all the relevant services, in a room, round a table, talking. But actually I hope you’ll use today to find out more for yourself.
Community budgets
Instead, I’d like to turn to another group of pioneers. I’m talking, of course, about our neighbourhood community budgets. Now these are only part way through their work, yet the signs are already encouraging.
White City, has established that around £40 million is spent on services in their neighbourhood from housing and employment to welfare benefits and adult social care.
Yet it remains one of the most deprived areas of Hammersmith and Fulham with high levels of unemployment and crime, low educational attainment and high mortality rates.
But now local providers and residents are sitting down together to redesign local services. At long last we’re making progress.
Meanwhile, Ilfracombe, in Devon, is developing an innovative virtual bank that shows local people the annual public sector investment in the town and what they are getting for it.
What better way to encourage local people to take the big decisions that affect their area?
Conclusion
So our Whole-Place and neighbourhood pilots are showing us the way forward. Helping us rethink how we’ve always done things. Showing us the merit of going back to the drawing board, following the money and working together.
I don’t expect we will find all the answers here today. But this isn’t about looking for new panaceas or new wonder cures for every one of our country’s ills.
This is about using innovation and imagination to make the most of what we’ve got. And if you’ve ideas and thoughts on what else we can do and where we can go next, I’m all ears.
The comments made by Brandon Lewis, the then Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government, on 21 November 2012.
I am today publishing a policy statement that provides early confirmation of the government’s policy decisions in a number of key areas following this summer’s technical consultation on the new business rate retention scheme. This policy statement will support local authorities, ahead of the provisional local government finance settlement, in their preparations for smooth implementation of the business rates retention scheme from April 2013.
The business rates retention scheme will enable local authorities to retain a large proportion of locally collected business rates to help fund the services they provide, thereby creating a direct link between business rates collected and local authority income, and reducing local authorities’ dependency on central government grants. The scheme will give all councils a strong incentive to go for growth and could add approximately £10 billion to the wider economy by 2020.
The policy statement confirms government’s intention to proceed with the implementation of a range of proposals that were set out in the technical consultation. It also sets out a number of changes to those proposals, in response to comments received to the consultation, including the government’s intention to maintain the 1:1 proportionate levy but with a limit of 50p in the pound. This will translate into very real benefits for authorities, allowing at least 25p in each extra pound of business rates generated locally to be retained locally. In addition, the policy statement sets out the government’s intention to fix the safety net at 7.5% – the most generous level within the range consulted upon. This guarantee will be maintained in real terms, since baseline funding levels will be uprated by RPI for the purpose of calculating eligibility for the safety net.
Overall, government considers that these policy decisions will result in a system that provides a strong growth incentive for authorities, while being underpinned by robust protections to help councils maintain effective services.
I have placed a copy of the policy statement in the library of the House. The policy statement and a revised plain English guide to business rate retention are also available on the GOV.UK website.
Data consultation
I am also today publishing the data consultation on the 2013-14 local government finance settlement. The consultation sets out the majority of data that may be used in calculating the provisional baseline funding levels and revenue support grant allocations from 2013-14. This release will enable local authorities to begin checking the indicator data.
The consultation can be found on the local government finance website.
Local Council Tax support
In preparation for the introduction of local Council Tax support schemes in April 2013, the government consulted on aspects of the funding arrangements to support authorities to offer Council Tax support.
Next week I will publish an update on these arrangements, including on the government’s approach to addressing budget pressures to ensure all authorities have a fair starting point. Final funding allocations will be included in the provisional local government finance settlement.
I will also be publishing the Council Tax base regulations and the government response to the consultation on providing certainty for the funding of local precepting authorities.
Also the final versions of 2 key Council Tax support regulations (first published in July) have been made and are soon to be published and laid before Parliament – the prescribed requirements scheme and the default scheme.
Links to the regulations will be available on the GOV.UK website.
The comments made by Brandon Lewis, the then Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government, on 14 November 2012.
Introduction
I am delighted to be invited to speak here today and to see so many others here to support you. I understand that this is the fifth AFSA national conference, and my predecessor Bob Neill has spoken at the last 2. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Bob, who has a deep understanding of the issues you face, as well as a great knowledge of the sector. I know that Bob, when he was Fire Minister, greatly valued the close and positive relationship he had with AFSA. I very much hope to be able to continue that.
The importance of AFSA
The importance of groups such as AFSA cannot be underestimated. You provide a forum for people to come together to discuss key concerns, to support each other’s development, and provide an opportunity for challenge.
And in terms of challenge, AFSA continues to perform a vital role in terms of ensuring that equality, diversity and fairness are mainstreamed in the Fire and Rescue Service. Events such as this provide excellent opportunities for the exchange of ideas, and for lively debate. I know that a regional AFSA group has been set up here in the West Midlands, supporting professional development and progression, sharing learning experiences, building a solid network of mutual support for employees, and supporting charities and fundraising. All of this shows the excellent work that the association is doing both at the national and local level.
Promoting equality and diversity
I know that Sir Graham Meldrum, when he was Chief Fire Officer in the West Midlands and again as Chief Inspector of Her Majesty’s Fire Service Inspectorate did a great amount of work to promote equality and diversity in the service, and this excellent work has been carried on by Vij as Chief Fire Officer of the West Midlands, and in his presidency of the Chief Fire Officers Association.
And I would like to say, on a personal note, that I am deeply committed to advancing equality of opportunity to one and all, not only in the fire and rescue service, but also in the communities they live in and serve. I am also of the firm conviction that this is best driven locally. And I say this because I want each fire and rescue authority to be responsible for reaching out to minority groups, and ensuring that they recognise that the service is for them – not as an add on – but for them along with everyone else in the community. I want fire and rescue services to go out into their communities, find the right people, engage with them and draw them into the heart of the fire and rescue service family. I want the entire community to be so integrated into the fire and rescue service that we no longer have to think in terms of equality and diversity – it will just happen automatically. I know that this is at the core of what AFSA is working for, and you have my full support in that.
There is no doubt, a lot is already happening, and I would like to highlight some of the work going on here in the West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service. They have Welcome to the West Midlands, an education programme for new migrants to promote safety, well being, community understanding and citizenship. This has been developed in consultation with migrants to meet the information gap which can occur when someone arrives in this country. The West Midlands also has active employee engagement through the local AFSA group, working with them to target under represented operational and support staff to develop essential skills.
In my short time as Fire Minister I have been very impressed by the wide range of local initiatives such as these, which not only reach out to the under represented, but also to the vulnerable.
In Greater Manchester, the fire service is leading a community project with the Asian Development Association of Bury. This project, which provided employment opportunities for local people, has already seen the production of a fire safety video that can be heard in eight of Manchester’s most commonly used languages. It will be the main communication tool used in community education sessions, facilitated by fire and rescue service volunteers recruited by the association. There will also be a series of workshops for the BME business community designed to raise awareness of how the fire and rescue service can help them meet their responsibilities under the Fire Safety Order. This project will be rolled out across all of Manchester’s ten metropolitan boroughs in the near future.
To engage young people from a community they have previously found hard to reach, and to respect religious beliefs, they have established a cadet scheme in Hyde for young women from the Bangladeshi community, and they are hoping to use this as a model to engage many ethnic communities in similar activities.
This work is being driven forward at the local level – not by central target or quotas, but by responding to the demands of their local communities. And to be able to respond to these, each fire and rescue service needs to make full use of the human resources at their disposal – and to do this equality and diversity has to be at the core of any organisation.
The key to delivering the best service to the local community is to have a diverse, representative workforce, equipped to understand and meet the needs of those it serves and capable of delivering a first class service to everyone. This will also support the service’s aim to create a better understanding of its preventative role and of the support and advice it is able to provide.
The fire service must ensure that every employee is valued; that there truly is equality of opportunity for all, and that the working culture is such that unfair discrimination, unacceptable behaviour, bullying and harassment are not tolerated. I strongly believe that the fire and rescue service has gone a long way to achieve this goal and together with partners like AFSA they can continue to work to create an even more open and inclusive service.
Fire Kills
I should also like to take this opportunity to thank AFSA for your continued support of the Fire Kills campaign. The Fire Kills campaign has had a focus on BME groups since 2005 – and for good reason. Research has shown that certain BME communities are at a potentially greater risk from fire. Smoke alarm ownership amongst Asian communities is ten per cent lower than the national average. Recent analysis of accidental dwelling fire victim profiles has suggested that Asian communities are potentially more vulnerable than African communities. This has led to our 2012 campaign focussing solely on the Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities. With smoke alarm ownership levels lower in these communities the primary message will be on the importance of working smoke alarms. Two bursts of advertising will run – one which began this week, and another in March 2013. The new campaign will focus on blessings. As you know blessing of wellbeing, health and a long life are delivered on important occasions in these communities. The new campaign will encourage people to make their blessings count – ‘when you give a blessing, make it count: test your smoke alarm’. There will be radio advertising to demonstrate the fire consequences of not having a working smoke alarm, linking it back to a blessing that was given. I have no doubt that this campaign, targeted primarily at first generation Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, will be a powerful tool for you and all those in fire and rescue services seeking to reduce deaths and injuries.
Economic position
The theme of this conference is ‘advancing equality during austerity’. I think that it is important to note that there are signs of improvement in the economy. Jobs are being created, manufacturing and exports have grown as a share of our economy, our trade with vibrant, emerging economies such as China and Brazil is improving, and the world is once again investing in Britain.
But we face many challenges. The debts built up over many years will take time to work our way through, not helped by a decline in our competitiveness which was effectively masked by unsustainable borrowing.
Despite the need to cut the national deficit, fire and rescue, as a frontline emergency service, has been given funding protection with reductions back-loaded to give more time for sensible savings to be made, and reductions applied to fire and rescue authorities have been less than those applied to local authorities in general.
I have been heartened to hear how many fire and rescue authorities have risen to the challenges that the spending review has posed. However, I know some of you have concerns that fire and rescue services may disproportionately reduce funding on equality and diversity activities.
I hope this is not the case. But if you see this happening, then you must speak up. It is vital that fire and rescue services do not make decisions that will impact on their ability to deliver on their statutory duties as required under the Equality Act 2010, and transparency and accountability are at the heart of our approach towards local government generally.
Conclusion
In closing I would like to thank you once again for giving me this opportunity to speak to you today. I do hope that your organisation goes from strength to strength, and that you remain and important and influential voice in the British fire and rescue service.
I would also like to extend my congratulations to all the award winners who will be honoured at this evening’s event, well done, keep up the good work and have a great night.