The budget for Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service is to rise 6.3 per cent next year.

The service’s estimated budget for 2025-26 is £72.8 million, up from £68.5 million.

The main reasons for the increase are improved payments for on-call firefighters, which form the backbone of rural fire services like Mid and West Wales, and a hike in employers’ national insurance contributions.

Without these two factors the budget increase would be 2.4 per cent.

Fire services get their funding from councils located in their area rather than directly from central Government.

This means councils including Carmarthenshire, Powys, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion will need to find extra money from their own budgets to cover the rise.