Following on from my previous update regarding the national pay offer made by the employers side of the National Joint Council (NJC) of a 3.2% increase for all grey book staff for the year 2025/26, I can confirm following a consultative ballot of its members, the employees side of the NJC has agreed to accept the offer.

The agreement will see a 3.2% uplift applied to all uniformed firefighter roles, effective from 1 July 2025.

However, this demonstrates yet again, that the NJC is failing firefighters across the UK. The 3.2% increase fails to overcome the long-term decline of pay for fire and rescue service staff and is again, an unfunded increase. This will cause continued pressure on fire service budgets, leading to the instability of frontline and support roles.

The increase is at the bottom end of the public sector pay rises with other public sector workers receiving pay rises of between 3.6% and 4.5%. Twenty years ago in March 2005, the average weekly wage in Great Britain was £376*, the weekly wage of a competent wholetime firefighter was £480**.

In March 2025, the average weekly wage in the UK was £722*, the weekly wage of a competent wholetime firefighter is £724***. This significant decline in real earnings is a clear demonstration that the NJC is failing firefighters across the country and needs urgent reform.

The FRSA will continue to lobby central government for reform of the national pay negotiating machinery, with evidence that the current arrangements are not fit for purpose continuing to build with every round of ‘negotiations’. The current arrangements once again fail to recognise the recruitment and retention challenges faced by the on-call by not coming up with meaningful pay rates to address this problem.

The fire sector needs long-term funding, not the current year-by-year agreement that causes instability and prevents long-term planning.

There also needs to be a business case presented to outline the broader role the fire service can play in protecting and serving the public which will in turn, open additional funding streams from central and local government. Currently, the narrow remit of the fire and rescue service prevents the argument for increased, long-term funding. What is lacking is any sense of vision for the longer term future of the fire and rescue service and its role in protecting and enhancing the nation’s social and physical infrastructure.

Tristan Ashby
Chief Executive Officer