Firefighters' pay rise 'not affordable'

British Chancellor Gordon Brown has rejected a 16% pay deal for the firefighters saying it is "simply not affordable" and could not be funded from the taxpayers' purse.

The Chancellor said the inflation-busting deal would cost Britain more than £500m (€792m) for England alone - over the next three years.

The British Treasury would not increase funding to councils to pay for the increase and bring to an end the strike, he said.

Five people have died in fires as the dispute continues, four in separate house fires while the charred remains of a man were discovered, following a blaze in a caravan.

Mr Brown refused to compromise his "iron resolve" and told the Fire Brigades' Union that any pay deal would have to involve comprehensive reform and modernisation.

"We have got to take a wider view about what is affordable for this economy and 16% pay rises are simply not affordable.

"Anybody who knows what the rate of inflation is, which is around 2%, knows that any settlement above 2% is an increase in the standards of living and take home pay for people around the country and therefore a 16% pay settlement is simply not affordable."

The 16% proposal put forward by councils and the FBU on the eve of the eight-day strike was a "document without reform", he told the programme, and a "menu without costings" which the Government was expected to underwrite.

"We cannot have a situation in the modern world where we have said investment must be matched by reform in every other area and all other public services are engaged in reform and we do not have a commitment to reform on the part of the firefighters but that we don't know that reform is going to take place."

He urged the FBU to reconsider the Bain modernisation agenda saying: "It does come back to productivity. It does come back to reform. It does comes back to the local authorities starting to look at some of the issues and getting full agreement with firemen on these issues."