More than eight million homes are facing council tax increases because they enjoy nice views or for having off-street parking, claim the Tories.

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.

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