POLICE budgets could be cut by £1.5 million more than previously expected for the next year.

Sussex Police budget papers show plans to make £16.5 million savings in the coming financial year while the overall amount of savings the force needs to make by 2021 remains unchanged at more than £50 million.

But the savings police and crime commissioner Katy Bourne and chief constable Giles York want to make in 2017/18 have increased by £1.5 million since this time last year.

The detail emerged in documents due to be discussed in a police and crime panel meeting today. In the next year some £12 million is proposed to be cut from local policing, £700,000 from operations. A £600,000 savings in the budget for specialist crimes would be made by having fewer teams, the report said.

Matt Webb, chairman of the Sussex Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said: “The idea you get more for less is a fallacy. The chief constable and the police and crime commissioner are being forced to operate in this current climate by the Government.

“Cuts have consequences, we are going to have to do less because we have got less. There is a massive amount of cuts to local policing. The force has had to remove a significant number of police officers and a reduction of police constables in neighbourhood policing teams. Our position remains that the cuts are going too far and too deep.”

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said: “The total savings requirement has not changed. All that has changed is the target for this year. There is no overall change to our plans. This an administrative reprofiling of our budget only and does not mean additional cuts to frontline officers.”

The force has also lost out on funds because of Brexit, according to the report. The decision to leave the European Union and the “detrimental impact” the vote had on currency exchange rates has affected interests rates, causing the force’s investment income to drop, the document said.

Mr Webb hopes the panel, which is tasked with setting the police’s part of the council tax will raise it as proposed by police and crime commissioner.

She wants people to pay an average of £5 more in tax per household to hire extra police officers to protect Sussex from terror attacks and form dedicated teams to tackle sex crimes, youth offending and antisocial behaviour.

Mrs Bourne said she would not bring in another police tax rise unless the public wanted it. But according to her consultation on the proposal, 78 per cent of people who responded said they were in favour of a £5 increase or more, a report said.

More than 4,500 people voiced their thoughts on the proposal in the survey. This was the highest percentage increase in favour of a tax rise since the office of the police and crime commissioner was established in Sussex in 2012, a report produced by Mrs Bourne's office said.

Mrs Bourne is already facing criticism from the panel for a “lack of detail” in her police and crime plan for the next four years, which she is due to present this morning.

Councillors who scrutinised the strategy said in a report: “The group was concerned by the lack of performance measures, or even detail or definitions, in respect of achievements of the objectives. The group felt this made it difficult for the public and the panel to hold the commissioner to account for successful delivery of her plan.”

It said the group was “unconvinced” the proposed approach “represented an improvement in” the ability to hold those in public office to account.

The police and crime commissioner is expected to address concerns and questions when she presents the proposals today.