Privatisation

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has called on Boris Johnson to take the capital’s fire engines back into public ownership following the announcement that yet another private company – the third in as many months – was being appointed to manage the fleet. The London Fire Brigade today terminated the...

Cleveland’s firefighters and emergency control room staff are expressing grave concerns regarding any proposed ‘management’ takeover of Cleveland fire brigade under the Conservative government’s mutualisation agenda. The drive towards some form of mutual fire and rescue service is a senior...

Following the news that AssetCo, the company which owned and controlled all London’s fire engines, has sold them to investment company AB&A in order to help pay its debts, the Fire Brigades Union today accused the London Fire Brigade and the Fire Authority of incompetence and having “handed over...

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has warned that the safety of Londoners is being jeopardised, following publication of a report exposing serious failings by the controversial private company which owns and maintains the capital’s fleet of fire appliances and fifty thousand items of equipment. The...

London Fire Brigades Union has called on Mayor Boris Johnson to step in and delay the decision on the privatisation of firefighter training set to be taken at a London fire authority meeting on 24 November. The same meeting will be asked to endorse the switch of a further £30 million from London...

A new report warns that plans to privatise London Fire Brigade training and the fire control centre would compromise safety whilst imposing new high financial risks on the capital’s fire service. The European Services Strategy Unit, jointly commissioned by the FBU, GMB and UNISON, has released its...

The day before AssetCo – the troubled company which owns and maintains all London and Lincolnshire’s fire engines – faces likely winding up, the Fire Brigades Union spoke out against new plans for further privatisation of the fire service. It urged the London Fire Brigade to “learn from past...