Firefighter jobs will have to be cut to meet an estimated £42.7 million funding gap in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the Chief Fire Officer has said.
Alasdair Hay pledged that there will be no compulsory redundancies but said the money saved through expected retirements will “go nowhere near” meeting the funding gap.
The £42.7 million gap identified by public spending watchdog Audit Scotland is equivalent to the cost of more than 1,000 firefighters but Mr Hay said he intends to meet some of the gap by rationalising assets, streamlining processes and partnership working.
The number of firefighters has already been cut from about 4,000 to 3,850 since the old eight regional services merged in April 2013.
Mr Hay told Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee: “The approach that we will take on this will be to continue to look at the best practice guidance offered by Audit Scotland.
“It is about a reduction in the number of people that work in the organisation, identified within the report as 79% of our budget that is based on staff costs.
“To take that much out of the budget you would have to reduce headcount in the organisation.”
He added: “I am always extremely reluctant to reduce the number of firefighters. However, we do not have a fixed number of firefighters in Scotland.
“We had approximately 4,000 whole-time firefighters before we came into the single service. As we stand today we have got approximately 3,850 whole-time firefighters.
“So, we have reduced them, but if we were to take the amount of money out of the budget that has potentially been indicated within this report you would have to look at a reduction in whole-time firefighters across Scotland.
“Clearly, as you go through a reform process it is an anxious time for staff.
“It is the staff that have made the difference here and that promise of no compulsory redundancy has meant that they have been very open to sharing their experiences, changing working practices and being flexible in their approach.
“If you were to remove that promise of no compulsory redundancies, I think that would have a detrimental effect on our ability to truly reform the fire service.”
He continued: “Up to 2020, we know how many people would be anticipated to retire through reaching their normal retirement dates.
“That number will go nowhere near addressing a reduction in our budget on the scale that the Office for Budget Responsibility indicated might be possible in the fire service or other public bodies.”