FIRE service chiefs in Hampshire have drawn up a plan for £17m of cuts over the next three years in a bid to meet the spending cuts.

Finance chiefs are planning to slash the authority's £70m budget by up to 12 per cent by 2013/14.

With the costs of its 1,800 staff accounting for over three quarters of the budget it could mean over 100 job losses. Staffing reviews are being set up.

The Spending Review revealed that fire service spending will be reduced by 13 per cent in real terms over the next four years.

And the Government said fire service will need to modernise, increase efficiency and deliver “workforce reform”.

Hampshire fire chief John Bonney admitted in a memo to staff: “We will be hit, and it will hurt”.

He added: ”Blind cuts to the service will help no one, but some difficult decisions and hard thinking about reducing costs cannot be avoided.”

Mr Bonney told staff: “This is of a scale of magnitude that outstrips our current programme of savings and we've got to do more.”