Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council expect an identical cut in Government grants, but each has conjured up vastly different budgets.

With the General Election looming, how have these conclusions been reached and what part does politics have to play in all of this?

Both administrations are working on same assumption that their Government grants will be reduced by 2% in the next few years.

The city council plans to shave 7% off its budget and cut 4% of staff over the next three years, while the county council is cutting its budget by 20%, and losing 10% of its employees.

About 70% of the Tory-controlled county council's budget comes from council tax, whereas the Labour-run city receives a similar proportion of its funding from Government grants.

We spoke to an expert who said the secret in the differences may equally lie in each council's funding arrangements and the hue of each's political beliefs.

Professor Lawrence Pratchett, head of the public policy department at De Montfort University, said: "It is a General Election year and that's likely to have a bearing on their priorities. Both councils are assuming a Conservative Government will cut public spending much harder than a Labour one.

"There are two cynical explanations for why the budgets are different and one is that the Labour party doesn't want to make heavy cuts before an election.

"Another possible explanation is the Tories want to make it look like they are having to cut because of Labour's bad management of the economy. In reality it will probably be somewhere in-between – the county council will make fewer cuts and the city will make more.

"It's important to also point out that the county is more rural and so it has different priorities than the city. So here we see the city council is renewing its Christmas lights. This might seem trivial to a reader who doesn't want to see their day centre close, but in terms of the issues the council deals with, it is arguably a vital investment.

"The city aims to build a commercial centre to rival Nottingham and it also wants to invest in community cohesion."

Last week Leicestershire County Council revealed its budget plans of cutting £66m from its £325m budget over four years. It also plans to axe 650 full time positions out of 6,000, excluding education staff.

The city council wants to slice £19m from a £280m pot, removing up to 270 posts out of 7,000 (excluding school staff) over three years.

Coun Ross Willmott, leader of the city council, said: "When the economy is growing, councils are able to spend more money but a recession has an effect on this and tough choices have to be made."

Conservative opposition leader Coun Ross Grant believes the council is holding out on making more cuts until after the election. He said: "It is avoiding real action until after the election – if Ross Willmott really believed in low tax he would have not upped it by about 5% in the last few years."

In the next financial year council tax in the county will go up by 2.5%. It will be frozen for the next three years if David Cameron is voted into power. This is because the Tories have promised any council raising tax by less than 2.5% will be given a top-up by central Government.

If Labour win, the council tax will increase by 2.5% each year.

During the same period the city's council tax will rise by 1.9% next financial year, and then 2.9% each year after that until 2013.