BRITONS will have to get used to the austerity squeeze until at least 2020, two influential think-tanks have warned.

The Institute for Government (IfG) and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said in a joint presentation tough spending cuts would be part of normal life for some time to come and the economic crisis, which began before the 2010 General Election, would continue beyond the 2020 election.

Although Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has already conceded he will not be able to balance the books by the end of this Westminster Parliament because of a lack of growth and the age of austerity would carry on until 2017, Julian McCrae of the IfG noted international experience suggested it could have to continue for much longer.

An IfG briefing paper drew a comparison with Canada in the 1980s and 1990s when it took more than a decade to bring the budget back into surplus. "If the UK experience proves to be as drawn-out as the Canadian one, we should expect not just 2015, but also 2020 to be an austerity election," it said.

Carl Emmerson, the IFS's deputy director, suggested an incoming government might choose to ease the pressure on Whitehall departments by putting up taxes after the next election.