London Fire Brigade should face no more budget cuts, review says

Ten fire stations were closed and 500 jobs cut during Boris Johnson's time as London mayor

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) should face no further cuts to its funding, an independent review has found.

The review carried out by the former chief executive of the Greater London Authority, Anthony Mayer, found more cuts would harm services.

The LFB faced the deepest cuts in its history under former London mayor Boris Johnson.

It closed 10 fire stations, removed 27 fire engines and cut more than 500 jobs to meet savings of £10m.

The LFB will still have to find savings of £23.5m over the next three years.

The review ordered by Sadiq Khan when he succeeded Mr Johnson as London mayor earlier this year examined whether the LFB needed additional resources now or in the future, as well as its ability to effectively manage incidents such as a flood or terror attack.

Mr Mayer said it was "important that the current budget gap is not allowed to widen further".

He added: "The service must continue to evolve and adjust to future challenges. Ring-fencing funds for potential major incidents and rehousing second appliances could make a big difference to the brigade's ability to maintain its readiness and resources to protect the capital, whatever the future may hold."

The review found despite cuts to frontline services the LFB had performed well.

It said the LFB continued to hit its target to be at the scene of an incident within an average of six minutes in nearly all of the capital's boroughs,

But the review warned any additional cuts to those already planned would negatively impact the LFB's ability to deal with new challenges or major incidents such as major health emergencies or terrorist attacks.