This section applies to all fire stations occupied by fire services and fire and rescue services in England and Wales including London Fire Brigade.
List Description: Fire Station and Premises
SCAT Code: 101
SCAT suffix G
This is a generalist class and responsibility for valuation will lie with the appropriate business unit. Queries of a complex nature arising from the valuation of individual properties should be referred to the National Valuation Unit (NVU) Class Lead via the Class Co-ordination Team (CCT).
NVU Civic Team has overall responsibility for the co-ordination of this class. The CCT are responsible for the approach to and accuracy and consistency of valuations. The CCT will deliver Practice Notes describing the valuation basis for revaluation and provide advice as necessary during the life of the rating lists. Caseworkers have a responsibility to:
Purpose built fire stations are a suigeneris class and consequently, as a general rule, only evidence relating to hereditaments in the same mode or category of use is pertinent. See:
See Rating Manual Section 2 Part 7 Appendix 2 for guidance on mode and category of use at the material day.
The method of valuation applicable to fire stations i.e. the contractors basis was endorsed by the Lands Tribunal (Upper Tribunal Lands Chamber) in North Riding of Yorkshire County Council -v- Bell (VO) (1958) and again by the Valuation Tribunal in Somerset County Council v Hartwright (VO) (1999).
There is unlikely to be any useful rental evidence relating to fire stations and consequently the contractors basis of valuation will be applied to this class, the appropriate method of measurement will be Gross Internal Area (GIA).
There are, however, some standalone fire control centres for which direct rental evidence maybe available or which are in the nature of offices/call centres for which a significant body of rental evidence exists. These hereditaments should be assessed using the rentals method of valuation and will fall to be measured to Net Internal Area (NIA). Where, however, a fire control centre is located together with a fire station or training facility then the valuation will be carried out by adopting the contractors basis and the facility should be measured to GIA.
Fire and rescue services (FRS) operate independently from each other although in recent years there has been a trend toward combining/sharing facilities such as fire control centres and specialised training facilities. Consequently, although FRS may have differing policies that can impact upon the provision of fire stations, common requirements and the demands of the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the regulatory Chief Fire and Rescue Advisor dictate a degree of uniformity.
Subject to the comment above, however, the nature of the area covered by a station will dictate the size, design, crewing level and operation of individual fire stations.
A fire station is essentially a building for the garaging of fire appliances and the storage of other ready to use firefighting equipment. The range of equipment will vary according to the size of the facility which is determined by its designation and purpose.
Many stations in rural areas are retained stations, operated by retained (i.e. part time) fire fighters and will usually be under 350m GIA with one or two appliance bays. As the fire fighters are not full time there are unlikely to be dormitory facilities etc. but there will generally be a meeting room/training room, drying area, equipment store, muster room and office, toilet and shower facilities.
In urban areas fire stations are likely to be crewed 24 hours a day, cater for more appliances, have a canteen and dormitory facilities as well as a gymnasium, training and administrative offices in addition to the accommodation referred to above. They will generally be at least 500m GIA. Some large urban fire stations are several times that size. A comparatively small number of stations are day manned, being crewed by full time fire fighters during the daytime but reverting to retained cover over night.
Many stations are now referred to as community fire stations. These stations house community halls and meeting rooms which in addition to their use by the FRS are made available to the public for appropriate uses. In some fully manned community stations, the gymnasium is also made available for supervised sessions.
The level of risk in the area covered by a FRS will impact on the distribution and size of fire stations. The whole of the FRS area is assessed for the risk level it presents and categorised according to the level of response that will be required for any callout. Thus, the proximity of, for example, large i