The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has blasted recommendations by the policy institute, Reform, as ‘right-wing trash’.

The union was responding to the release of the institute’s 81-page Reformers and Wreckers document outlining recommendations to improve public services.

The Reform report used eight case studies, including Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service. It points out how savings have been made by the fire authority and that between 1997 and 2007, Merseyside reduced the number of full time firefighters by nearly 40% while there was a reduction in the number of fires and fire deaths.

Also, between 1995 and 2008, the fire service reduced the average sickness absence from 19 shifts per firefighter to just under five, saving £2million per year.

Referring to this work as well as other case studies, the report said: “Unfortunately the efforts of these excellent public sector managers remain the exception rather than the rule. Commonly, public sector managers oversee a corrosive employment culture where poor performance is tolerated and good performance is unrewarded.”

However, the FBU has condemned Reform’s claim that further huge fire service cuts are manageable, warning that if the agenda is followed it would have a devastating impact on public and firefighter safety.

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said: “It is dangerous and ignorant right-wing trash to suggest that more cuts to an already depleted fire service are manageable. We’ve been cut to the bone already and further frontline cuts will have a devastating impact.

“Reform makes this claim based on the falling number of deaths in accidental dwelling fires. They put this down to smoke alarms, which do not put out fires or rescue people.

Smoke alarms are useful, he added, but are not the ‘magic bullet’ the research is suggesting.

“We’ve already been cut to pieces. To follow the Reform agenda will put the lives of the public and fire crews at much greater risk at all the incidents we respond to.”