Draft text of the speech - may differ from the delivered version.

I am delighted to have this opportunity to join you today, the first Arson Control conference for two years.

Since taking up post as the Fire Minister, I have been enormously impressed by the dedication and professionalism of the staff within the Service, responding to fires, emergencies, and the proactive work undertaken by you all to prevent fires happening in the first place.

Setting the scene

I am glad to be here at such a crucial time. Fire remains one of the major threats to communities in the UK today.

The human cost of fire can devastate whole families. In the twelve-month period up to March 2008 - the latest period for which figures are available - there were estimated to have been 215 accidental fire related deaths in the home in England and about 68 United Kingdom deaths resulting from deliberate firesetting.

Of course, the effects of fire can go far beyond the loss of life and injury. In the case of a school fire - where sadly many of the fires are started deliberately, the disruptive effect such events can have on a child's education can be extremely traumatic. Fire can destroy the project work of many months and can be a terrible experience for pupil, parent and teacher alike. The insurers estimate that over 50,000 children are affected by fire every year.

Research into the economic cost of fire estimated that in 2004 the overall cost of fire in England and Wales was around £6.6 billion. Arson resulted in costs of around £2.2 billion. We will shortly be publishing updated figures for England of the economic cost of fire but we know that the cocts are likely to have risen in absolute terms. The ABI has recently suggested that the cost of fire damage has increased significantly between 2007 and 2008.

Arson Control Forum

Of course, no single agency can resolve the problem of arson on its own. This is why we established the Arson Control Forum in 2001 to encourage a partnership approach to arson reduction, using the framework provided by the Crime and Disorder Act.

Now Chaired by Max Hood, CFO for West Sussex, the Forum brings together key stakeholders such as:

• the police
• fire and rescue services
• local authorities
• the insurance sector
• those involved in the administration of justice and
• a number of government departments, including my department Communities and Local Government and the Home Office

The Forum's key role is to provide national strategic direction and to take forward a programme of work to reduce arson-related deaths, injuries and damage.

A key strand of the Forum's work programme has been to provide research and evaluation of initiatives to tackle arson. For example, the Forum has evaluated the impact of Arson Task Forces and Car Clearance schemes, concluding that both approaches are effective ways of reducing the incidence of arson.

And, its work feeds directly into the government's wider strategy regarding crime and social exclusion.

Reviewing progress

Partnership is the key to unlocking positive action. Many of you are already involved in excellent work on arson prevention with local stakeholders, by:

• giving advice and help to householders and businesses
• advising on fire safety and crime prevention legislation
• working with schools to educate children about general fire safety and the dangers of playing with fire
• working with disadvantaged young people to raise their aspirations and reduce crime

And the Government has invested heavily in the work of the Forum to help fund many of these initiatives. For example, we invested £4.5 million pump-priming in the Fire Safety Innovation Fund to support fire and rescue service community safety projects during the period 2004 - 2006.

More recently, during 2006 - 2008 we invested £11.3 million to fund local fire and rescue arson reduction work through the Arson Control Forum Implementation Fund.

And our collective work and activities have borne fruit.

The trend for deliberate fires has been downwards, and for the 12 month period from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008 deliberate primary fires decreased by 14 per cent to around 60,000.

Learning from previous recessions

But as ever, there is no time for complacency. As a country, we are in a new period of unprecedented economic uncertainty and instability.

We need to prepare for the possibilities of how this downturn may affect the FRS. We now face new challenges. For the fire and rescue service, the economic downturn brings reminders of previous recessions.

Based on experience from previous recessions we need to understand that there may be an increased risk of arson. The number of vacant houses may increase; more cars may be abandoned; and business premises may fall into disuse as well as perhaps represent temptation to insurance fraud. These all could present challenges that we all need to rise to.

Clearly the tightening of public finances is going to be an issue, but there are also factors which may arise as a result of increased unemployment rises and people having less money. And the particular relationship between deliberate fires and unemployment will be covered in more detail in a presentation later today.

Key levers

Since the last time we published the Economic Cost of Fire in 2004, the Government has introduced other measures to bring the costs and other adverse consequences of arson down. These include: 1 the End of Life Vehicle Directive, 2 the Fire Prevention Grant funding stream, we have helped pump-prime many local authority car clearance schemes, which have proved to be a successful way to reduce the incidence of car arson.

But we must be mindful that the price of scrap metal is not a constant - when the price is up, people take their cars to scrap yards and can get a good price for their vehicles. But in an economic downturn when the scrap price is lower, or non-existent, people tend to dump their old cars in the street. They then become a target for bored and disaffected youths to set alight.

The relationship between the price of scrap metal and the rate of deliberate fires is undeniable:

• deliberate car fires have decreased from a peak of 70,900 in 2002 when the scrap price was low to 34,400 in 2006

These falls were attributed to:

• improved vehicles licensing schemes
• success of vehicles removal schemes
• recent increases in the price of scrap metal (in 2006)

And we should not ignore the impact that the End of Life Vehicle Directorate (2000/53/EC) has made - and will continue to make in the years to come - in reducing the number of abandoned cars on our streets. Prior to the Directive, the last owner of a vehicle was responsible for the full cost of disposal.

Since 2007, however, the Directive now requires car manufacturers to provide free 'take back' schemes for vehicles first registered after 1 July 2002.

We therefore have a number of levers at our disposal to tackle car arson issues.

And unlike previous times of recession, FRSs are now actively engaged in work with children and vulnerable adults who have been involved in deliberate fire setting and other anti-social behaviour.

There are many, many examples of successful Fire and Rescue Service youth intervention programmes to target young people at risk from fire play and other unacceptable behaviour. But, in particular, there are two programmes I wish to refer to today.

The first example is the LIFE programme pioneered by London Fire Brigade, initially in the borough of Newham. LIFE is a week-long course delivered by firefighters across 29 London boroughs, aimed at 13-17 year olds who are risk of involvement in anti-social behaviour, including towards firefighters themselves, and deliberate firesetting. The impact of this work is impressive; in the first three years there was an overall reduction of 30 per cent in calls to deliberate fires in Newham.

The second example is the work Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service is doing with Thorn Cross Young Offenders Institution. This work involves providing a positive role model for Black boys and young black men at Thorn Cross. Cheshire has had some success working with these groups in the community because the public has a high regard for the Fire and Rescue Service and, as such, the Service as a whole has the ability to intervene and help disaffected youths.

This type of work can help build community cohesion, and at the same time help Fire and Rescue Authorities to improve the diversity of their workforce.

We are also making good progress in protecting our school children from fire. In 2007, the Department for Children Schools and Families published a new building bulletin, BB100, which now requires the designers of all new and refurbished state funded schools to carry out a risk analysis of the need for sprinkler installation. As a result, the Department for Children Schools and Families expects that most new and refurbished state funded schools will now include sprinkler systems.

And, finally we must not forget that we now have new legislation designed to facilitate better fire safety management in commercial premises. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places a clear responsibility on those responsible for all non-domestic premises to put in place sufficient fire precautions to manage the risks identified through a risk assessment. For some employers, owners or occupiers of such premises the risk of arson may increase in the current economic climate and managing this risk may need to be factored into the business decision making process. FRAs can play an important role in raising awareness among their local businesses of the potential for arson and, where appropriate, support their local business communities to make appropriate decisions designed to protect livelihoods as well as lives.

A detailed understanding of local circumstances and trends provides FRAs with a clear line of sight to the risks they and their business community face. The flexibility of and process offers a real opportunity for FRAs to take a proactive and partnership approach to supporting their local business communities whilst striking the right balance between prevention, protection and response.

But, as I have already mentioned, in line with previous recessions, it is possible arson and deliberate fires may increase. But this time around we are better prepared. As I have just set out, Fire and Rescue Service fire prevention work and arson reduction in particular are much more entrenched in communities than ever before.

And we in CLG have recently commissioned some research to look at potential trends for both primary and deliberate fires.

You will be receiving a more detailed presentation on this later this morning. However, the research made clear that social and economic trends in recession, together with climate change, can create significant new pressures with the potential to drive up numbers of deliberate and non-domestic property risk. I emphasise the word potential, I do not want this to become a self fulfilling prophecy.

Although the magnitude of these trends is uncertain, what we cannot afford to do is wait for the effects of the downturn to happen. We need to closely monitor trends and anticipate areas where early intervention will mitigate risk.

So where do we go from here?

So it is clear that we are now entering some testing times. But doing exactly the same as we have done for the past few years simply isn't enough.

And there is no silver bullet at our disposal to solve this problem.

You will need to show real leadership and be proactive in working with other local public services to ensure communities are protected. You know your area, you know your priorities, you know who is most vulnerable and how best to help and protect them.

You therefore need to remain diligent and aware of the changes in our communities.

And you need to continue to develop effective, meaningful and lasting partnerships.

And you will need also to target your resources more effectively from the experience and successes of others and wherever possible pooling resources. I would urge you to continue to work together and in partnership with other agencies proactively to join up pockets of expertise regionally and sub-regionally to make a difference where it matters.

Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships and Local Area Agreements provides you with the legislative framework you need to work together with the police, local authorities, and other agencies to identify crime and disorder problems in your area and to develop and implement strategies to address them.

This conference is therefore timely. It offers us a chance to share both what we know about the problem, and examples of good practice. These are the first steps on the way to making a real difference in the future.

And so in conclusion I would like to leave you with some questions which I urge you to think about and consider.

Are Fire and Rescue Services doing enough to ensure that those responsible for fire safety in buildings are continuing to pay as much attention to fire safety in challenging times as they do in good times?

What can the Fire and Rescue Service do about reducing the number of abandoned cars, which make up the largest portion of deliberate primary fires?

This is not just an urban problem - rural communities are also at risk. And you will need to plan effectively for the potential impact of climate change.

The Fire and Rescue Service must consider all of this and more and I put forward the challenge to you to learn from the innovative work that has been done in recent years and focus on implementing programmes that we know are effective in reducing the level of arson, such as the establishment of local Arson Task Forces and Car Clearance schemes. You must use your resources on proven initiatives and strategies, tapping into good practice that we know exists.

Today is an opportunity for you to share this experience. Our collective objective is to improve people's lives by reducing the menace of arson. We have established a framework for doing this and believe that by working together with the key partners we can achieve this.

In the current economic climate, this will not be easy but it will be challenging - however, I believe the message that prevention is better than cure is key to achieving our goals.

And the re-energised Arson Control Forum under Max Hood's chairmanship will be at the heart of this important work, continuing to draw together all the agencies needed to tackle and reduce the incidence of arson.

Thank you.