David Ruffley MP has today hit out at Government plans that would see huge Council Tax increases in areas with good schools, clean streets and low crime rates.

Home owners and tenants will be charged hundreds, or in some cases thousands, of pounds extra if the live in a 'locality' deemed by Government Ministers to be more desirable than others.

Sophisticated computer equipment will be used in the forthcoming revaluation of all 21 million homes in England, and will allow a precise value to be put on each home, not only by its size and features but also its location.

Ministers have divided the Country into 10,000 'localities' for revaluation purposes.

The new system of calculations is based on a system being tested in Northern Ireland. The current banding system would be scrapped and replaced by an annual bill levied at 0.78 per cent of the value of each property.

This would bring the average bill in England up from £1,056 to £1,492.

Households in more affluent areas such as parts of Suffolk would face substantially higher increases under the more sophisticated 'locality' system.

David said:

'This is yet further evidence of this Government resorting to Big Brother computer systems to satisfy their insatiable need to increase Council Tax.

'Initially we find out that they want to log every feature of our home, from number of bedrooms to whether we live near a conservation area.

'Next we are told that their clipboard laden bureaucrats will be knocking on our door to inspect our home and that we will be fined if we do not cooperate.

'Now we in Suffolk will not only be taxed for every feature of our home but also the neighbourhood we live in.

'This is typical of a Government that is striving to find ever more stealthy ways to tax working families and invade our privacy whenever it suits them.

'The average Council Tax bill in England would rise to £1,492 under this system but we in Suffolk would fare even worse due to the 'locality' classifications this Government is introducing.

'So far the Communities Minister, Phil Woolas, has refused to provide a list of the 10,000 'localities' the country has been broken down into, which reportedly do not have names and do not reflect current local authority boundaries.'