Theresa May announces major shake-up of fire service

Fire brigades will be told to cut costs as part of a major shake-up of the way they are run after Theresa May announced she was taking over responsibility for the service.

The Home Secretary, who pushed through controversial policing reforms, said she was "determined" to improve efficiency in fire and rescue services.

Fire services have poor procurement, IT systems and buildings management, Mrs May said and indicated she plans to introduce an independent inspectorate as well as order routine performance data to be published.

It comes as the government prepares to give police and crime commissioners responsibilities for fire and rescue authorities where a case is made locally following a consultation earlier this year.

All three emergency services will also be forced to look at ways to work together to improve efficiency, including through sharing administration systems to cut costs.

Mrs May said: "I look at the fire and rescue service and I see the need for many of the same reforms that I started in policing five years ago.

"Better local accountability, more transparency and a relentless focus on efficiency.

"So, while I continue to finish the job of reform in policing, I am also determined to properly kick start the job of reform in fire.

"We've already set out its proposals to allow PCCs to take over fire and rescue authorities - this will provide direct, democratic accountability in fire as we now have in policing.

"We need to go further still though. I am struck by the fact the fire and rescue service doesn't have an independent inspectorate and does not routinely publish data on performance.

"Local people need these things to hold their local public services to account.

"And from my experience fire has the same problems as policing in terms of poor procurement, ICT and management of buildings.

"I'd like to bring the same collaborative approach we're seeing in policing to fire services too.

"But, at the same time, I think fire and rescue services have things to teach the police too.

"The extraordinary success of fire-fighters preventative work has hugely reduce the number of fires and saved countless lives.

"I want to police to focus on prevention to achieve the same results in regard to crime."