Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to (a) add to the Local Government Finance Settlement the one-off grants that fire authorities receive for pensions and post Grenfell funding in protection services, (b) reinstate the Firelink grant when it comes to an end from the Home Office while Fire Services continue to incur the costs the grant is designed to cover and (c) increase the new burdens grant for the costs of the Redmond review of audit procedures in line with the increase in the costs of external audit; and if she will make a statement.

The Home Office keeps the payment of grants to Fire and Rescue Services under regular review and seeks to include them into the Local Government Settlement wherever possible. The Department will continue to seek to rationalise funding for Fire and Rescue where possible, including consolidating smaller grants which can create administration burdens.

The costs of the Fire and Rescue communication systems, along with all of their other costs of delivering their service has been factored into the Local Government Settlement which will be published by the Department for Levelling-up, Housing and Communities later this month.

The Government is clear that local authorities will need to meet audit costs within existing budgets. However, we remain committed to supporting local authorities with the costs of strengthening their financial reporting and will be providing additional funding of £45m over the next three years.