The UK's new coalition government delivered Britain's most important and painful budget in decades on Tuesday, with a spending plan that is likely to define the fortunes of both the government and the country for years to come.

Faced with one of the highest budget deficits in the world in terms of percentage of gross domestic product, Treasury chief George Osborne said his government will eliminate the structural deficit and ensure the UK's debt burden is falling as a percentage of gross domestic product by the 2014 financial year, ending 2015.