Darren Johnson. London Assembly Member for the Green Party, has called for the fire engine contract to be brought back in house as a ‘sensible long term solution’. He has responded to news that the private company which owned the contract for London’s fire engines has been put into administration.

Darren Johnson said:“The sensible long term solution is to bring the contract in house and scrap the PFI arrangement. Many other fire authorities have a straight forward leasing arrangement. I hope that both the Mayor and the Government will see sense and recognise that the experiment with PFI has failed. We shouldn’t be taking financial risks with something so essential as our fire engines. Government funding guarentees for PFI credits could be better spent on developing an in house contract.”

A temporary arrangement for the contract with a new company is in place for the next 18 months.

November 15, 2012