Firefighters' leaders have launched a fresh attack on a programme to build new fire control centres, claiming that the Government will spend more money on civil servants and consultants than the entire project was meant to cost.

The original estimate for the FiReControl project, which involves replacing England's 46 local fire control rooms with nine regional centres, was £100 million, although costs have soared to £1.4 billion.

The Fire Brigades Union said it obtained new figures showing that by 2013 the Government will have spent £105 million on civil servants and consultants involved in the plans.

A spokesman said: "The Government is throwing money at a failing project it got badly wrong from the start. They've spent more money on civil servants and consultants than the entire project was meant to cost.

"There is an army of civil servants, consultants and hangers-on who have been cashing in and there is still nothing that works.

"It is a terrible waste of public money at a time of a major spending squeeze. This money should be going to frontline services, not Whitehall plans that nobody wants and don't work."

The FBU said the Government had spent millions of pounds, mainly on buildings which have been standing largely empty and unused for two years, with no chance that any of the new centres will be operational until 2011 at the earliest.

The Government maintains that the new centres will improve communications and deliver a more "robust and responsive" emergency service.

A spokesman for Communities and Local Government said: "We do not recognise the figures quoted.

"A complex technical project like FiReControl requires us to bring in people with the right expertise and specialist skills for an appropriate period of time. We keep consultant numbers under constant review and use civil servants wherever possible."