London Fire Brigade: Tackling racism depends on funding, says chief

The commissioner vowed not to close fire stations in London

Tight funding will impact efforts to stamp out racism and misogyny in the London Fire Brigade (LFB), its chief has said.

Commissioner Andy Roe said difficult financial decisions could divert funds from schemes intended to address the brigade's cultural problems.

Institutional misogyny and racism within the LFB were outlined in a November 2022 review.

He also told a London assembly committee stations would not be closed.

Mr Roe said fire station closures would be an irresponsible course of action given the growing number of "emerging risks" in London, such as wildfires, flooding and the impact of climate change.

The review, conducted by former chief crown prosecutor for the north-west Nazir Afzal, included accounts ranging from women being groped to firefighters having their helmets filled with urine.

Mr Roe recently told London assembly members that he was committed to a "culture change" within the LFB and was working to create an "inclusive workplace", including through improved training of officers and the creation of an external complaints service.

But at Monday's meeting of the assembly's budget and performance committee, the commissioner warned that tight finances could mean less funding for those improvements.

He said this would depend on how much of the brigade's budget has to be devoted to increased pay for staff - with the increase decided at a national level following negotiations with the Fire Brigades Union.

London Fire Brigade was put under an "enhanced level of monitoring" after an independent review last year

In the event that a higher than expected increase is agreed this year, Mr Roe said the brigade would likely be forced to "slow down or stop" some of its "investment activity".

He added: "It might be about slowing down some of the changes to training, it might be about looking at the level of investment we're putting into change around culture, for example."

He pledged though that he would not look to find "easy answers" in the search for savings by removing fire engines or closing fire stations.

"I am not of that mind. I think they have to be safeguarded at all costs," Mr Roe said.

"We do a quarter of all fire and rescue service calls in the UK on a daily basis, over 210,000 a year. We hold all the risk, in pretty much every metric, in comparison to other force areas [across the country] - we are very different."

Baroness Fiona Twycross, London's deputy mayor for fire and resilience, told committee members that the national negotiations over firefighter pay would not necessarily have concluded by the end of the mayor's budget-setting process in a few weeks' time.

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