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Fire and resilience

The economic, environmental and societal effects of fire

Date of speech	14 November 2007
Location	QE2 Centre, London
Event summary	Fire Summit

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Transcript of the speech as delivered.

Thank you for inviting me here today, to give the keynote address. 

But first, It has been a very difficult few days and I was fortunate enough to visit Warwickshire twice to thank the Fire Fighters on the ground. And today I would like to send my best wishes to the families, friends and colleagues of 4 firefighters in the factory fire in Warwickshire 12 days ago and pay tribute to them. Their loss is a stark reminder of the difficult and dangerous circumstances in which the Fire and Rescue Service operates, and the risks they face. We will look closely at the lessons to be learned from the police, fire service and HSE investigations, and Sir Ken Knight, my chief adviser is enaged in this, and the main priority for me is not to pre-empt the outcomes.

The theme of this conference is the impact of fire on the economy, on the environment and on society. This is an ambitious theme, and I look forward to seeing the outcome of today's conference's deliberations on these issues. 

But in broad terms we have had for some time an assessment of the economic cost of fire - roughly £7 billion for England and Wales. We know this from government research done some 3 years ago. Its main findings are still relevant and highly useful for policy making.  I will tell you why.

Cost of fire

The cost of fire was broken down into three main areas:

1) £2.8bn - that is 40 per cent of the total was incurred in "designing out" fire, in other words making our buildings as resistant to fire as possible through the installation of fire protection measures in buildings.

2) £1.7bn - was the cost of the fire and rescue service responding to fires and other emergencies.

3) £2.5bn - was the cost of the consequences of fire, such as property damage, lost business, and the loss to the economy from injuries and deaths of the victims of fire.

£2.5bn can buy 5500 new hospital beds, it can build 80 new secondary schools. Clearly it is in all our interests to bring these costs down. Not just because of the cost to the economy, but because of the damage fire causes to people's lives - whether through loss of livelihood, loss of property or loss of life. 

But some of these costs are appropriate. We need to invest in fire protection, and we need to invest in the fire and rescue service to ensure it has the capabilities it needs to respond to fires and other emergencies.

Turning first to fire protection. Fire protection and suppression measures have an important role to play as part of a balanced strategy of risk management for the environmental and societal effects of fire. 

Through the Building Regulations we have a powerful tool at our disposal to design out the risk of fire.  Of course any new measures that we introduce through the Regulations must be proportionate and justified in terms of the lives that they save and the injuries they can prevent. But through the Regulations we make people safer from fire.

The provision since 1992 for all new build dwellings to have hard wired smoke alarms, along with our ongoing campaigns promoting their use in existing homes is a great success story. There is no doubt that increased smoke alarm ownership has had a significant role in the downward trend in fire deaths. So has the programme of locally-delivered Home Fire Risk Checks.

But we are not complacent on this issue. We are always looking at new and innovative ways to save lives and at changing fire risks in the community. 

Clearly one of the areas of interest to us, as it is to many of you, is the potential of sprinklers for fire safety. Sprinklers are not a panacea but they do have a role to play, particularly where their provision is targeted at buildings where the occupants are most at risk from fire. It is important that, where they are used, they form part of a package of measures to achieve effective standards of fire safety. 

And the government is promoting their use in such situations. Through the Building Regulations, we have introduced a provision for fire sprinklers to be fitted in tall blocks of flats (where the most vulnerable frequently live) and new large storage buildings.

I just want to go back to 1996 when Tess Kingham my predecessor gave a speech to the House of Commons which mentioned the MFI superstore fire on Eastern Avenue in Gloucester. She said that she wanted to introduce sprinklers into multi story retail buildings of 2,000sq metres. I am pleased to say that this was brought into place at the turn of the century and this proves that we do learn lessons.

My department has also undertaken research into the potential for lower cost domestic sprinkler systems. As a result of this research and in collaboration with the Fire Protection Association, we are now finalising a design guide for such systems which we hope can form the basis of a new pilot trials. It is still very early days on this, but we appreciate the support of CFOA in assisting the pilots at a local level.

We are also making good progress in protecting our school children from fire. DCSF is about to publish a new building bulletin, BB100, which will require the designers of all new and refurbished state funded schools to carry out a risk analysis of the need for sprinkler installation. In future DCSF expects that most new state funded schools will include sprinkler systems.

That is £6bn a year on new schools, the difference is massive and something that we should all welcome.

Separately, the 1984 Building Act gives the power for Building Regulations to be made for sustainability purposes.
 
I am pleased to say that, using this power, next year we will investigate the impact of fire on the environment and building sustainability. We will explore whether any change to the regulations can be made to mitigate the impact of fire. This is a major piece of research, which will take three years to complete.

So the Government has done much to exploit the benefits of sprinklers in reducing fire deaths and injuries. New schools, residential care homes, tall blocks of flats and new large single story retail buildings will in the future be protected by sprinkler systems.

But others also have a role to play. The government's interest is in promoting life safety, property protection is necessarily a matter for property owners. Property owners themselves should consider what fire safety measures should be introduced to mitigate the incidence of fire. This is a requirement of the Regulatory Reform Order for life safety. But it is also in their interests to take into account the possibility of loss or disruption to their businesses. 

I believe the insurance industry has a significant role to play in protecting non-domestic dwellings from the dangers of fire by requiring sprinkler protection as part of the conditions for providing insurance, or reducing premiums. 

I turn now to the second major part of the cost to the country from fire, that of the cost of the FRS in their work to mitigate the effects of fire. This includes the work they do to stop fires from happening in the first place, such as fire safety education and the advice they give to business and property owners to make their premises safer from fire. 

The firefighter role has evolved over time, with prevention growing in importance over the past 5 years, alongside the more traditional operational role. Training has developed to reflect the wider role, but the requirement for operational competence remains paramount and I believe always will.

Clearly the Government's modernisation programme for the fire and rescue service is key to helping the FRS deliver an effective and cost-efficient service. However in taking this forward, the Government itself has three clear roles to play.

Government should set the legislative framework for an effective response. This we have done through the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004. Following the Act, we introduced Integrated Risk Management Planning.

Resources are now allocated on the basis of risk, rather than on the basis of the density of the built environment. As a result of this, fire authorities are now able to target their resources to protect our communities from the impact of fire and other emergencies.

The Government's second role is to be clear in its expectations of the fire and rescue service. This we do through a requirement introduced by the 2004 Act, the publication of the National Framework. I am pleased to announce that we are publishing a revised version of the Framework in the next few days for consultation. This is an important document for us all - and I know you will take time to consider it. I look forward to your comments upon it.

New Framework

The new Framework recognises that FRAs have come a very long way since the first Framework was published in 2004. And we have recognised this by stripping out some unnecessary detail around processes that are well understood and focusing on the challenges ahead. In particular the challenge to deliver on the key resilience programmes - especially on FireControl - which is at the heart of the document.

Thirdly, Government should support the service in its role - and if necessary challenge it sometimes to do even better.  

I will pick up a few key points.

Through the Fire Resilience Programme the government is investing hugely, to enhance the ability of the fire and rescue service to respond to major catastrophic incidents.

And through the recent Local Government White Paper, we have reduced the reporting and assessment burden on fire authorities, along with other local authorities, through the introduction of the Comprehensive Area Assessment process. In support of this we are providing guidance for fire authorities to be able to take a full part in the discussions to develop Local Area Agreements with their partners in their communities.

We have promoted fire safety messages through the "Fire Kills" media campaign, spending around £3 million per year on this important area. In addition to our usual smoke alarm campaign, this year there will be a special focus on the Polish and Somali communities.

And we are currently consulting with you on proposals to establish a Centre of Excellence for the fire and rescue service. The consultation proposes the creation of a central body to provide strategic operational support to fire and rescue authorities to enable the service to meet current and future demands. A range of options are offered, covering its role, functions, status, governance and possible funding arrangements. It offers an opportunity for the FRS to take greater responsibility and ownership for managing the present. And to take a central role in influencing the future direction of the service, because the man from Whitehall doesn't always know best. But, a Centre of Excellence will only be established if the consensus of the FRS is that such a body is required and will have their on-going support.

One of the main areas of challenge to the fire and rescue service, in this era of greater focus on community safety, is its need to become more representative of the community it serves. The service needs to develop a real understanding of the community it serves - its differing needs and differing life styles - so that it can educate the community about the risks from fire and protect it from its consequences.

That is why I am pleased today to announce that we are consulting on a new national Equality and Diversity strategy for the FRS in England. We will consult on the draft Strategy as part of the National Framework consultation I have referred to. This is your opportunity to help us make sure the Strategy is as effective as it can be by providing us with your views comments and suggestions on how we can do this better.

In developing the Strategy we had the benefit of many examples of good practice around the country from Fire and Rescue Services who were making a difference and moving the equality and diversity agenda forward.

Many of these examples came to our attention because of their nomination for this year's Fire and Rescue Service Equality and Diversity Awards. I am pleased to announce that the Equality and Diversity Awards will be presented again in 2008. A circular will be issued soon, giving the details of the awards process and the criteria for nominations for this next round.

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage you all to take part and to contribute to an increasing fund of experience and expertise in promoting and nurturing equality and diversity both within the Service and much more widely across our communities.

Finally, I turn to the third major part of the cost of fire - that of dealing with its consequences. We need to get the balance of investment right on the first two elements to be able to reduce the consequences of fire to the level the community is prepared to bear. This is a hard judgment to make. But let's look at what we - government, the fire service and wider industry - have achieved together.

• The long term trend in fire deaths is downwards, in the UK as a whole fire deaths are now at their lowest level since 1958.
• In England, deaths from accidental dwelling fires have fallen dramatically in recent times, down by nearly 30 per cent in only four years.
• The total number of fires (all property types, and including chimney fires) in England has fallen from by over 20 per cent in 5 years.    

We don't have estimates for the cost of fire going back many years, but as a simple comparison, the cost of fire deaths and property damage in 1973 was £2.4bn (at today's prices) and this has fallen by over a third to £1.5bn in 2005.

A remarkable achievement.

But challenges remain, many of which you will be discussing today, from climate change and the threat of international terrorism. Facing these challenges in partnership, between the government, the fire and rescue service and industry, is the challenge that faces us all. In meeting this challenge we will reduce the impact of the economic, environmental and societal effects of fire. My thanks to you for the opportunity to share my views, I look forward to hearing yours.