Today, Rachel Reeves has set out budgets for government departments in the Spending Review 2025.
Commenting on the Spending Review, Fire Brigades Union general secretary Steve Wright said:
The Spending Review must represent the end of the austerity era.
The fire service has been battered by nearly 15 years of Tory cuts that have left it ill equipped to tackle the impact of climate change like wildfires and flooding, as well as keeping the public safe day in and day-out.
Firefighters have been at the sharp end of this austerity and faced real terms cuts to their pay for nearly a decade and a half.
The Spending Review must be a dramatic departure from that disastrous approach.
The Spending Review must be the relaunch of the Labour government, which has to deliver substantial funding for public services, pay workers properly and fund a generous welfare state.
Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer need to start acting like the Chancellor and Prime Minister, in a real Labour government that taxes the wealthy to fund these priorities for the working class.
The Labour government has belatedly seen sense and stepped back from the disastrous cuts to the winter fuel allowance.
However, Labour must now abandon its planned cuts to welfare benefits, which will plunge tens of thousands of people into abject poverty and lead to a surge in food bank use.
It's time to permanently move on from austerity with a wealth tax to fund public services, the welfare state and pay.
There can be no more excuses. Labour must break with austerity."
