£130m allocated for fire station modernisation

The government will spend £130m building new fire stations and facilities, it announced today.

Fire services in Cleveland, Country Durham and Darlington, Northumberland, Staffordshire and Surrey have all been selected for development.

The services had been bidding since July for a share in PFI funding to modernise their stations.

Communities and Local Government will set aside £60m for the joint Cleveland, County Durham and Darlington and Northumberland proposal; £30m for the Staffordshire proposal and £35m for the Surrey plan.

Fire minister Sadiq Khan said: “For this latest round of funding we set out a tough criteria and the standard of submissions was very high.

“But three proposals were particularly impressive and I’m delighted to announce that we have set aside £125m for projects in Cleveland, County Durham and Darlington, Northumberland, Surrey and Staffordshire.”