Devon and Somerset’s fire service could be facing a funding gap of more than £13 million over the next five years.

A medium-term financial plan, which stretches to 2030, has been created to assess its potential income and expenditure.

Income for the fire service predominantly comes from two sources, council tax and government funding, but it only has control over the council tax part.

Even then, there is a limit to how much it can increase its share of council tax, and while it could hold a referendum to request more, it estimates it would £2.3 million to ask residents whether they would stump up extra cash.

Its staffing costs equate to nearly 80 per cent of spending – or £88 million for the 2025/26 financial year, meaning that roughly £4 out of every £5 it spends is on employees.

The medium-term plan range from  a ‘worst-case scenario’ of an £19 million deficit to a most optimistic £7 million surplus.

Andrew Furbear, its head of finance, suggests a £13 million funding gap is his base.

“It is a big number and we are mindful of it, but I am confident that we have got the processes in place to reduce the gap and find a balanced budget moving forward,” he said.

“We are reviewing our operating model, including the way we pay our on-call staff, the way our whole-time staff roster themselves, and our tactical rescuing provision is being reviewed, so we have got a number of processes in place to review and reduce our costs accordingly.”

Chief fire officer Gavin Ellis said the service needed to “continue to look at how we can make the service sustainable and efficient.”

He continued: “Although we have been able to set a balanced budget for the next financial year, it doesn’t mean that we are out of the woods yet and we still need to make savings in the future,” he said.