Treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander has warned all parties must enter the 2015 general election promising years of austerity.
The Liberal Democrat minister told MPs two more years of cuts would be required beyond the 2015/16 spending review set out last month.
He warned the UK’s economy would be damaged if any party came into office without a “clear plan to deal with our public finances”.
Mr Alexander acknowledged the need for continued austerity as he appeared before the Treasury Select Committee to explain the decisions in last month’s spending review.
He said reaching agreement on the level of departmental cuts had involved “robust discussions and “there were very thorough exchanges”.
He said: “We have made, in a serious-minded way, some very difficult decisions to reduce departmental budgets, to freeze and then restrict pay growth in the public sector, some difficult decisions on welfare expenditure too.
“We’ve increase taxes particularly on the wealthiest in society, we have taken more action to tackle tax avoidance.”
Mr Alexander said he hoped all parties would accept the need to balance the books in the next election campaign.
He said: “I hope, in time, all political parties will recognise those decisions have to be made while, of course, having a debate about the precise nature of the choices you would make to meet those things.”