Devon’s police commissioner office has turned for the first time to the county’s fire service for £5 million in short-term loans.

The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) for Devon and Cornwall said it had borrowed money from its emergency services counterpart alongside other councils and pension funds.

The £5 million it borrowed from Devon and Somerset Fire & Rescue service in the year to April came with a seven per cent interest rate, although it was only for a short period of time.

Fire service documents show the term of the loan – the period within which it has to be paid back in – was a third of a month, suggesting it would have been paid off in 10 days or less.

Interestingly, the OPCC was charged the highest interest rate out of all the other organisations the fire service lent money to in the previous financial year, with the next highest being 5.7 per cent for a loan to West Northamptonshire Council, and the lowest being 4.45 per cent to Helaba, a German bank.

The OPCC said the money it borrowed was used to cover short term fluctuations in cashflow, with those periods being around five days.

In total in the 2024/25 financial year, the OPCC borrowed £22.5 million from a range of lenders, which were Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire, Hampshire Pension Fund, Hyndburn Borough Council in Lancashire, and the West Yorkshire Pension Fund.

And it has borrowed £20.5 million in the current financial year that will end next April, the OPCC confirmed.

A spokesperson said the borrowing was part of “routine cashflow management”, essentially meaning that it needed to make sure it had enough money in its coffers to pay some outgoings before its next expected income.

It is common for local authorities, such as councils and police commissioner offices, to borrow money from similar authorities.

An OPCC spokesperson said: “As part of routine cashflow management, it is sometimes necessary to borrow money for short periods.

“Through our treasury management strategy, there are approved routes for doing this in the best value for money way, which includes borrowing from public sector partners.

“All short-term borrowing is repaid quickly and does not therefore add to the long term borrowing that is undertaken to finance capital projects, such as buildings, which is repaid over a longer period.

“The treasury management strategy is reviewed annually to ensure our approach represents the best value for taxpayers.”

In the OPCC accounts for the 2024/25 financial year, it states that all long-term borrowing is taken from the Public Works Loan Board, which is part of the Treasury and is the main lender to local authorities.

The accounts add that all short-term borrowing is arranged from local authorities to cover short-term fluctuations in cash.