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Council Tax

Fire and Rescue Authority approves 1.8% council tax increase...

14 Feb 2010

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority is to increase council tax by 1.8%. This is likely to be one of the lowest increases by any fire and rescue authority in England. The average increase across the country is thought to be about 2.5%.

This increase will give the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service a budget of £68.2 million. For taxpayers it means that bills will increase by £1.08 a year (for a ‘Band D’ property).

Chairman of the Fire Authority, Councillor Royston Smith, said:

“With this relatively small increase, the Authority is able to maintain its policy of keeping council tax increases at or below the percentage increase in state pensions.”

“Our priority is to make Hampshire safer – and all our performance indicators show we are delivering on this aim. We want to do even better, so feel that an increase of just two pence per week is extremely good value given our ambition to be the best-performing fire and rescue service in the country.”

At its meeting on Wednesday, 10 February, members of the Authority also agreed six new objectives as part of its three-year plan for 2010 - 2013.

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The objectives cover a range of areas of work for the Service, including the development of a new risk based response standard, increasing our contact with the public, creating a dedicated fire investigation team, making best use of firefighters, reviewing our staff numbers and tackling small fires in a better way.

Councillor Royston Smith added:

“All Authority Members considered the proposed objectives in the plan with a great deal of thought and integrity. We were made aware of the strength of feeling which was expressed during the consultation process and would like to re-emphasise that every view was taken into consideration before arriving at these six objectives.”

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service Chief Officer John Bonney said:

“Hampshire is a highly respected and progressive fire and rescue service. We continue to look at areas where improvements, as well as efficiencies, can be made. Overall these new corporate objectives will help improve the way we deliver services.  We believe that this sets the Authority in a good position for a future where public funding will be much tighter”.

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