Fire Futures: Government publishes its response to the independent review of the fire and rescue service in England.

The Government's response, provides a clear statement of the principles that are central to the future of the delivery of fire and rescue services. The response document outlines that Government is responsible for enabling and empowering the service and for ensuring appropriate funding to deliver reform, and in particular expresses the Government's view that:

• Decisions on local service delivery are best made locally, not top down from Whitehall
• Local fire and rescue services are accountable to local people with local responsibility for decisions and performance. National targets and monitoring are a thing of the past, the focus is on serving local communities
• Clarity on the national and local roles in resilience arrangements will be provided within the next statutory National Framework

The Fire Futures reports also provide an 'ideas bank' and for many of these ideas the next steps will be for the sector to determine and take forward as appropriate.

The RFU is especially pleased to see the Government identifying the value of the RDS and its significant potential for expansion. Our local officials will be liaising with their respective FRS to identify ways in which this potential can be maximised to the benefit of our members and the communities they serve.