The fire service’s average response times to serious fires is more than half a minute longer than it was five years ago, according to the latest Home Office figures.

The average total response time to “primary fires” in England (more serious fires that tend to harm people or cause damage to property) was eight minutes and 49 seconds between 2018-19. This response time is 11 seconds longer than last year’s and 33 seconds longer than in 2013-14.

Although total response times to fires have increased gradually over the past 20 years, the figures plateaued from 2014 up until last year, when they started to rise once again.

The Home Office claim that this increase in England is “entirely caused by the increase in average drive time”, which can be explained by a range of factors including changing traffic levels, “drive to arrive” policies that require fire brigade drivers to modify their driving to reduce risk, and control staff asking more questions from people calling 999 to better assess how to respond to the situation.

However, the Fire Brigades Union warned that the increase in response times was evidence of the impact of cuts to services.

Matt Wrack, the FBU general secretary, said: “In a fire, a matter of seconds could be the difference between life and death, so these figures are incredibly alarming. Services have been cut to the bone, and it’s obvious that with fewer firefighters and scarcer resources, firefighters are taking longer to get to fires, putting lives and businesses at risk.

“This is just part of the picture. Many services are not properly crewing fire engines, so there is no guarantee that there will be a safe number of firefighters on board when it arrives.

“The slowing of response times has been gradual, but the impact over a number of years is staggering. The government urgently needs to invest in our services and, crucially, we need national standards to set a required response time. Every second counts.”

Rural areas had some of the largest increases in services’ response times to primary fires on previous years.

An average response time of 10 minutes and 34 seconds in predominantly rural areas in 2018-19 was up 18 seconds on 2017-18 and 27 seconds on 2013-14. Significantly, rural areas had an average response time of nine minutes and 59 seconds in 2018-19, which was 13 seconds longer than 2017-18 and 52 seconds more than 2013-14.

Fire and rescue services in predominantly urban areas had an average total response time of seven minutes and 41 seconds to primary fires in 2018-19.

Response times across the UK vary depending on the category of fire and area in which they occur. The types of places in which fire response times have increased since last year include non-residential properties, road vehicles and the outdoors.

Across England, the average total response time to secondary fires, described as smaller outdoor fires not involving people or property, was nine minutes and 42 seconds in 2018-19. This marks an increase of 32 seconds on 2017-18 and 59 seconds on 2013-14.

The Home Office said this increase was driven by “the exceptionally high” number of secondary fires in July 2018, such as in grassland, woodland and crop blazes.