The additional funding required for Warwickshire Fire & Rescue's new operating model has been made a permanent part of county council spending plans. 

The service is in the throes of rolling out its resourcing to risk model, which was adopted in the face of concern and criticism from some communities. 

It allocates fire engines and staff to locations closest to high-risk areas but perhaps more controversially also saw the service move away from reliance on on-call firefighters – locals with other jobs who would commit as and when they could – to permanent staff. 

A large part of the problem was the patchy availability of on-call firefighters but rolling out more permanent staffed positions required an increase in spending of more than £500,000 per year. 

Warwickshire County Council oversees and funds the fire service and committed the extra money for three years – the length of the community risk management plan (CRMP) – but questions were raised on what happens after that.

However, a further £602,000 – increased funding that takes account of likely inflation and staffing costs – has been budgeted for in 2028-29 with another £614,000 coming forward for 2029-30, taking things to the end of the council's five-year spending plan. 

That plan is refreshed each year but any removal of this money would now require a fresh budgeting decision as it has been allocated as a permanent spending feature moving forward as opposed to a time-limited one. 

Cllr Andy Crump, the political lead on the fire service and community safety, this week admitted to fellow cabinet members that current performance data was "not particularly flattering" but insisted: "I think it validates what we have been doing with resourcing to risk. The response times will improve significantly. 

"We have now found another £602,000 for year four and another £614,000 for year five, so we are funding resourcing to risk for the five-year medium-term financial strategy. 

"That was one of the queries that our residents from Bidford who came to overview and scrutiny, cabinet meetings and others asked, how this would be funded going forward, so that is good news.

"We will have more people trained to help with fire protection and we have put additional money into that in light of the Grenfell building regulation changes. 

"Although we are not quite on target with our fire protection inspections, our enforcement has increased by 500 per cent. This is something that the inspector raised, that we were not doing enough enforcement, and we have taken note of that. 

"We have had to spend time doing enforcement to get it right the first time so while the figures in the report are not particularly flattering, we have plans to sort them out and they will be increasing. 

"Despite (the data) looking like a bad news story, there is good news there as well."