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Britain should be braced for a "choppy and uneven" recovery, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has warned - as a survey predicted the north of England would fare worst under Government spending cuts

The Deputy Prime Minister appeared to soften the Government's rhetoric by stressing that departmental reductions of up to 25% would be staggered over four years.

All departments, excluding the NHS and international aid, have been asked to find four-year cuts of between 25% and 40%.

Mr Clegg issued an effective plea for understanding from the public with just six weeks to go until the results of an unprecedentedly tough Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) are revealed.

Mr Clegg told Radio 4's Today programme there were "difficult decisions" ahead but talk of billions being taken out of the economy immediately was misleading and only added to people's fears.

The cuts would begin in April 2011, he said, and would be "spread evenly" over the next four years - equivalent to an annual 6% budget reduction over four years.

"While I totally understand people's anxiety, I don't think we should aggravate that anxiety by pretending there is a sword of Damocles coming down straight away," he said.

Mr Clegg denied the spending review would exacerbate the North-South divide, saying the economy had been unbalanced - and over-reliant on financial services in London and the South East - for many years.

He was "acutely aware" of the dangers facing parts of the country "over-reliant" on the public sector, and ministers were committed to spending £1bn to support job creation in vulnerable areas including tax incentives for private sector firms to set up there.

"I wish we could flick a switch and rebalance the economy overnight," he said. "This does take time."

Past generations had "got it wrong" in running up big debts and although it would require "many years of patient execution", the government was committed to "taking the necessary steps to ensure a fair and prosperous future".

"A thriving economy cannot be built in the long term on shifting sands of debt," he said.

By setting out a long-term framework to reduce spending, he said he hoped public sector managers would have a "little space to plan carefully" for the future and "not panic and take the wrong decisions". He said he was "under no illusion" about the political risks that the Conservatives and the Lib Dems faced in what he said was "an unavoidable task" of re-adjusting public spending.

But he insisted; "It is not being done with any ideological relish, it is not being driven by some desire to cut the state back.

"Some of the hyperbole I have heard is just preposterous - this idea, that somehow, it is back to the 1930s. After the spending round, we are still going to be spending £700bn of public money - more than we are now."

"For us, the longer-term view we are adopting in government will help to wipe the slate clean, and ensure that future generations can thrive, without being burdened with the dead weight of our debt, and our failings," he said.

 Mr Clegg said part of the "horizon shift" would be keeping the ministerial team more stable. Under Labour, ministers stayed for an average of only 1.3 years in each post, barely giving them time to get to grips with their subjects, according to the DPM.