More than 8m households face council tax hike for having a nice view or off-street parking

Ministers have admitted they are building a database covering all 23million homes in England, and Conservatives say this means that residents of good neighbourhoods could be hit by huge council tax hikes.

Bills for next year are dropping on doormats up and down the country, with the Government expected to announce this week that in many areas the increases will exceed 5 per cent.

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The Conservatives revealed yesterseemsday that eight million homes have been logged on a "Big Brother" state database for having one or more offstreet parking places.

Details of the exact number of places - from one to "nine or more" - are kept on file.

A further 80,000 homes have been recorded for having a scenic view which impacts upon its value.

The database is broken down according to whether the house has views of the sea, hills, mountains, lakes, fields or golf courses.

Different codes are provided for "partial view" and "full view".

Conservative local government spokesman Eric Pickles said: "This is new evidence of the Labour Government's great council tax cover-up.

"Ministers' claims that the council tax revaluation in England was postponed have now been completely shredded.

"Every home in the country is being sized up, and every home improvement or sign of a nice neighbourhood, is slowly being photographed, catalogued and taxed by Gordon Brown's tax inspectors.

"Families face soaring bills for the crime of living in a nice neighbourhood. Only Labour would think of taxing people for looking out of their own windows."

Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Ministers are implementing revaluation by stealth, hoping that the public will blame local councils for rises in council tax."

Ministers have strenuously denied they are planning a revaluation of council tax bands, but the existence of a database to indicate that they have not ruled out a shake-up.

If a revaluation were to go ahead, officials have plans to evaluate council tax rates on the basis of a series of property attributes.

These include the number of parking spaces, number of bathrooms, number of bedrooms, whether the house is detached, and "value significant features" such as the beauty of the view, access to local transport and local shops.

Other factors include the age of the house, how many floors it has, and the type and size of any conservatory.

The valuation scheme has previously been used in Wales, where it led to 33 per cent of homes going up a council tax band and only 8 per cent going down.

If it is ever rolled out in England, it would mean that those in more desirable areas would pay more council tax than those with similar - or larger - homes in scruffier neighbourhoods.

Over the past two years, the Government has paid £3.2million to an American contractor, Cole Layer Trumble, to produce a council tax database.

Details about the database were revealed following Tory parliamentary questions.

Council tax has shot up since Labour came to power. In 1997 the average band D household paid £564 a year, but by last year that had increased to £1,078.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: "This story has had more comebacks than Rocky Balboa. It was wrong last time and it is wrong this time.

"We have repeatedly made clear that there are no plans for a revaluation, and there is no revaluation by stealth.

"This means no one can be penalised for improving their home, off-street parking or having a scenic view.

"The Valuation Office Agency is simply maintaining an accurate council tax valuation list.

"It would be unwise for people to speculate and scaremonger about possible overall levels of council tax as they may well be wrong."