“Our values must be more than just a Facebook post" Bedfordshire’s Fire & Rescue Authority debates dropping overseas banks

But a councillor asked which job it would cut to make it 'feel good' as it debated dropping Qatar National Bank and First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC as investment institutions.

The meeting on Wednesday, March 26 heard that the county’s fire and rescue service is “supportive of the principles for responsible investment” and will seek to bring environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into the decision-making process for investments.

Assistant chief officer (ACO) Gavin Chambers said: “Previously we’ve considered the environmental aspects.

“Moving on with the ESG perspective for our responsible investment policy we’re taking that one step further regarding the countries where we make our investments.

“There are a couple of countries that we are flagging in the report where they don’t have the political freedom or the civil freedoms that we may or may not wish to consider.”

ACO Chambers explained that if the fire and rescue service had two five million pound investments (the maximum allowed) for a year but didn’t invest in these countries then it could miss out on £30,000.

But the current investment budget is £700,000.

Councillor Richard Wenham (Central Bedfordshire Council) asked which job would be cut to replace the £30,000 so the service can “feel good”.

“I find it really hard to believe that we’ll give up £30,000 of income that is allowed by the government,” he said.

“Obviously, if the government said no, we’d need to follow that. At the time when you’ve got a big gap to close in your budget, how can we justify that?”

Councillor Michael Headley (Bedford Borough Council) said the £30,000 is the potential worst case scenario, and it could be “a lot less”.

“It’s not unusual to be making decisions other than what’s the best rate of rate of return,” he said.

“We need to recognise that this is an issue that was brought to our attention by staff, and I think it’s reasonable for them to challenge us in terms of our values.

“Our values must be more than just a Facebook post every so often, or putting some words in a document. Our values need to be demonstrated in action,” he said.

Councillor Wenham said he agreed with councillor Headley but the banks are legal institutions and huge investors in the UK, so he proposed to remove them from the list.

A majority of members voted to keep the banks as investment options.