Havering will not suffer any cuts to its fire stations or engines, it appears.

The London Fire Brigade needs to save £45m over the next two years, and has announced proposals to close twelve stations as well as axing several fire engines at others.

But the planned cuts have not fallen on Havering.

In November only one of the borough’s four fire stations, Harold Hill, was on a “safe list” of those which definitely would not close.

Under today’s proposals, the brigade says it will maintain its existing average target response time of getting its first fire engine to an emergency within six minutes.

Around 500 firefighter jobs will be lost under the plans, but the brigade says there won’t be any compulsory redundancies.

Ron Dobson, Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said: “Like virtually every other public service, the Brigade needs to make savings. In the last four years, we have cut £52m without reducing frontline services. Additional savings cannot be found without making significant changes to how we keep London safe.

“Having spent 33 years as a firefighter serving the capital I know how important it is to respond to incidents as quickly as possible and I have every intention of maintaining our current response time targets for first and second fire engines.

“With all the work we do to prevent fires happening, and response times that are still amongst the best in the country, I am confident these savings can be made while keeping London safe.”

The plan will be discussed by members of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority on January 21, with a final decision being announced in June after a public consultation.

Labour members of the London Assembly have called the city-wide cuts “reckless”.