Leaders at Swansea Council have urged the region's fire authority to think carefully before raising its levy by an above-inflation amount. Six councils fund the vast majority of Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service's budget through a levy, which will be set in February.
A 13% increase has been recommended for 2023-24, but the final levy approved by the fire authority could potentially be even higher now because of a reduction in some Welsh Government grant funding. Concern over the scale of the levy increase was raised by Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart, who said at a cabinet meeting that while he acknowledged the pressures faced by the fire service, the council had pressures of its own. He said the planned levy increase would cost the council around £2 million.
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Cabinet colleague, Cllr Robert Francis-Davies, said he hoped the fire authority would make savings, just as the council was doing. He said in his view the fire authority just passed on its pressures through to councils to fund. "Now, I think they need to have a close look at their budget and make some of the decisions, not popular decisions, that we've had to make to come in on budget," he said.
The region's chief fire officer, Roger Thomas, has addressed councils in recent weeks about his concerns for the resilience of the service - particularly due to a declining number of retained, or on-call, firefighters. He told a council meeting in Carmarthenshire last month that he felt the retained firefighter model was unsustainable, partly because younger people weren't joining up.
A 13% levy increase would "ensure there is no degradation" to the fire service, according to a fire authority report, which also assessed a 9% and 11% rise. Mr Thomas said he understood the pressures faced by councils, but that the priority of the fire authority was to provide for an effective and efficient fire service. "The 13% (increase), as communicated to councils by myself, will seek to address the issue of the operational resilience of our on-call and whole-time sectors," he said.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has been advised that even if the levy increase was to be higher than 13%, councils wouldn't lose out financially above and beyond 13% because they were receiving some additional Welsh Government funding. A Welsh Government spokesman said: "We will be transferring some grant support for fire and rescue authorities to local government through the final annual revenue settlement for 2023-24 onwards."
The fire authority will set the fire service's budget on February 6. It will rise from £53.8 million to £60.8 million if the 13% levy increase is approved. The levy was increased by just under 4% in February this year.
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