The Government is to plough an extra £400 million into mental health provision in a bid to put it on an equal footing with physical health, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said.

Under its new mental health strategy, published on Wednesday, the coalition aims to treat mental health with the same priority and importance as physical health for the first time and to combat the stigma attached to it.

It will also stress the need for early intervention, to nip in the bud mental health problems in children.

Mr Clegg said: "For far too long we've allowed there to be a stigma attached to mental health. If you speak to people in the health service they say mental health has been treated as a Cinderella service."

But he acknowledged that unemployment and other economic stresses could cause a rise in such problems.

Speaking ahead of the strategy launch at the Marlborough Family Education Centre in St John's Wood, north west London on Tuesday, he said: "Clearly in times of anxiety and insecurity, when families and individuals have to deal with the problems of personal debt, for example, you get a lot of pressure on individuals, which is why you have to help in the best possible way."

The cash being pumped into mental health provision under the new strategy will be extra money, he added, and would not just be shunted from another part of the health budget.

The extra money is designed to give children and young people in England better access to modern psychological therapies, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, if they need them.