I am a member of the Fire Brigades Union Parliamentary Group and a proud supporter of our firefighters and their union.

Whether it’s Northern Powerhouse or levelling up, the reality we face is higher taxes and cuts to services.

The Office for National Statistics found that average wealth has fallen by 17% in the North-East between 2006 and 2020. In contrast, wealth increased in every other region bar the East Midlands, with London and the South-East leading the way with wealth growth at 63% and 43% respectively.

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service has lost in the region of £10 million in government funding over the last twelve years, when inflation is taken into account.

Our Fire and Rescue Authority has experienced a shift over the last decade so that two-thirds of our overall funding now comes from local taxpayers.

Our choice isn’t between raising taxes or cutting services. The reality in County Durham is tax rises and cuts to services.

The challenges faced by the Fire Authority are borne out of a broken tax system.

Council Tax is an unfair, regressive and broken system of taxation, that places the heaviest burden on communities with high service demands and the least ability to pay.

We need to scrap this unfair tax and deliver a fairer system that is based on wealth and ability to pay.

The Government must match rhetoric with action, whether it is Northern Powerhouse, Levelling Up, One Nation or Compassionate Conservatism.

The first step to resolving this funding challenge is to replace Council Tax with a Proportional Property Tax that would balance an area’s ability to pay, and deliver services based on need.

If not a Proportional Property Tax, how do we secure additional funding for County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue, given that it cannot be raised through our low Council Tax base?