Robber Brown's council tax lies

That is when the so-called “class war” revaluation of ­England’s 23 million homes will begin. If you live in a “desirable” street in a “nice neighbourhood” you are likely to be hit disproportionately by higher council tax bills in the first ­nationwide revaluation since 1991.

With a General Election expected on May 6, a fourth-term Labour ­government would drive forward its tax overhaul, starting the revaluation from June 1.

In the battle for middle-class votes the Tories have promised to scrap it altogether and freeze council tax for two years.

They also vow to abolish the right of tax inspectors to enter houses.

Labour’s plan was exposed after the Government advertised for a firm to run a database “relating to UK residential property”.

The tender notice, which has to be published under EU law, states: “(The data) will support a wide variety of valuation purposes undertaken by HMRC’s executive agency, the Valuation Office Agency, and specifically to improve the quality and ­accuracy of the council tax lists in England and Wales.”

The three-year contract, worth £2million, begins on June 1.

Tory local government spokesman Caroline Spelman said: “Labour ministers have been caught ­red-handed secretly preparing for a council tax revaluation in 2010.

“This is a tax bombshell, timed to go off after the General Election.”

The Tories say Labour’s “class-war politics” have clobbered middle-class voters.

Hard-working families have endured national insurance increases, a £100billion “stealth tax” on pensions, stamp duty rises and a decline in social mobility since 1997.

Labour’s latest plan will build on an already bulging database listing the desirable features of 11 million homes, collated in a £6million deal in 2005 with the property website Rightmove. Tax inspectors at the Valuation Office Agency are also building a photographic database, which has internal and external shots of 1.6 million homes. Ministers have repeatedly denied they are carrying out a “revaluation by stealth”.

However all properties are being checklisted against categories, from the number of bedrooms and bathrooms they have to whether they have outbuildings or a conservatory.

Good parking, transport links and even “pretty views” are factored in.

A full revaluation was proposed in 2007 but, as fears of a recession grew, ministers ruled out a review for the lifetime of this Parliament.

Yesterday Gordon Brown sought to paint Labour as the party of aspiration and the middle class. Speaking to think-tank the Fabian Society, the Prime Minister said: “It is quite clear that our opponents do not understand the needs and worries of middle-income Britain.

“The Tories have planned a raid on the quality of life of our middle class. They want to take away middle-class guarantees. And have no account of future middle-class jobs.

“And that trio of threat – denying access to services, removing guarantees of quality, and abandoning jobs for the future – leads to only one conclusion: that it is only Labour that offers a manifesto for the middle.”

Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond dismissed the idea of Mr Brown as champion of the middle class as “laughable”.

Last night a spokeswoman for the Department for Communities and Local government said: “The Government has made it clear that a council tax revaluation in England will not take place during the lifetime of this Parliament.