Our budget and your council tax
Council tax is one way we fund the work we do on behalf of our communities.
As your fire and rescue service we work to create safer communities in many different ways, through our response to emergency incidents, our Prevention work with people in the community and our Protection work keeping businesses safe from fire.
In the year 2021/22, we:
- responded to 10,096 incidents
- checked over 13,000 homes for fire safety
- conducted 559 fire safety audits of businesses
Our Community Risk Management Plan 2022-25 sets out how we will ‘Create Safer Communities’ and improve our effectiveness through increased community engagement. We will review the way we work to make sure we operate sustainably and create an organisation fit for the future. We will continue to deliver a service that responds to emergencies, helps prevent fires and other incidents and ensures our firefighters are there when people need them most.
Our financial position remains very uncertain. Planning for the future is incredibly challenging because our fire service only receives a one-year funding from central government each year.
To help with these challenges on Friday 24 February 2023 the Fire Authority approved a council tax increase in the fire service precept which works out as a £5 annual increase for the fire service for a Band D property.
Where the money comes from
| £50m | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £29.8m Council Tax | £6.2m Government grant | £7.6m business rates from Central government | £3.7m business rates from local authorities | £2.3m Pension grant | £0.4m Earmarked reserves |
What this means for you
| Property band | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Increase* | £3.33 | £3.89 | £4.45 | £5 | £6.11 | £7.22 | £8.33 | £10 |
| Total for 2023 / 24* | £59.71 | £69.67 | £79.62 | £89.57 | £109.47 | £129.38 | £149.28 | £179.14 |
*the part of your bill that goes to NFRS