AS we step gingerly into the economic uncertainty of 2010, it is clear that election campaigning is under way in earnest.

Nationally, David Cameron has declared that the NHS will be his number one priority, amid Labour complaints that there is a £34bn gap in how Tory promises will be kept.

Locally, Darlington Borough Council has revealed its budget thinking by releasing draft plans headlined by a proposed freeze on council tax.

After a year in which many people in the private sector were denied pay rises, endured pay cuts, or lost their jobs, it will be a popular move.

With a General Election months away and local elections due in Darlington next year, a council tax freeze is clearly a strong political message.

But there is, of course, a big price to be paid as Britain comes to terms with the unprecedented public sector squeeze needed to get the country out of the financial mire caused by the economic collapse of the past year.

It is simple economics that less income means more cuts – and that will create a critical balancing act for local authorities in the years ahead.

Darlington’s proposed council tax freeze comes hand-in-hand with plans to save £4.7m in services and efficiencies, including 77 lost posts.

Compared with the private sector, there is more fat to trim in many areas of the public sector, which has prospered under more than a decade of a Labour government.

Political expediency is today’s story.

The longer-term test for national and local political leaders is how they manage to save costs without cutting the front-line services that matter most to people.