Treasury minister John Healey revealed that 1.28 million of those – 58 per cent – were of domestic homes, and related to some 823,000 separate addresses.

The Tories said the figures were another example of “greedy” Gordon Brown plotting to rake in yet more cash from hard-pressed families.

Tory local government spokesman Eric Pickles said: “Big Brother by stealth swells the coffers of Gordon Brown. The evidence is that privacy and the property of honest citizens is under threat from this greedy Prime Minister non-elect.”

He added: “I am alarmed that faceless Whitehall bureaucrats are now rolling out a sinister property photodatabase.

“Not only are civil liberties under threat, but I fear these photos will be used to tax features like conservatories, extensions, gardens and patios.”

The Valuation Office is also paying estate agents for information about the homes on their books.

The Government insists that the first revaluation of England’s homes for council tax purposes since 1991 will not now take place until after the next general election. But work continues to gather information about all 22 million homes in the country.

Currently, homes can be placed in a new council tax band when they are sold, if their value is deemed to have changed sufficiently since they last changed hands.

But national revaluation is likely to see a wholesale shift in the amount of tax paid by householders. Council tax bills have already doubled since 1997.

After revaluation of properties in Wales, four times as many homes went up a band as down. This year’s Lyons review of local government funding, commissioned by Mr Brown, called for two extra council tax bands at the top and bottom.

The Government insisted yesterday that the photographs gathered by the Valuation Office Agency,  which is responsible for revaluing properties when they are sold, were just part of its work to ensure details were up to date.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Govern­ment said: “To present the routine collection of information as linked to revaluation would be misleading and wrong. This has been the Valuation Office Agency’s statutory duty since 1993.” Ministers have regularly brushed off as “scaremongering’’critics’ claims about its intentions.

Conservatives say a new property tax introduced in Northern Ireland, and the consequences of the revaluation in Wales, point the way to what is planned in England.

Use of “spy in the sky’’ camera technology is believed to be part of the valuers’ armoury to assess features such as extensions.

The Lyons report published on Budget Day recommended regular council tax revaluations.

Tories are convinced that a revaluation by stealth is already under way.

Christine Melsom, founder of the IsItFair anti-council tax campaign, said last night: “This is revaluation by the back door. People are outraged about what’s happening with properties. It’s all to take more money from the council taxpayer and they will continue to do so. People just can’t afford to go on like this.”

She added that she had heard from householders who had received letters from the Valuation Office Agency asking if its inspectors could pay a visit – apparently to size up local housing stock.

Council taxpayers are already up in arms about the way their bills have soared during 10 years of Labour government.

The move by many local authorities to introduce fortnightly rubbish collections has been the last straw for thousands of people who wonder what they are paying their council tax for.

A new waste strategy unveiled last week warned families could be hit with £50 fines for not recycling. Ministers promised cash rewards for those that join local schemes to reduce the amount of trash dumped in landfill sites.

But councils complained that the Government was not providing enough money to fund recycling, raising fears of yet more council tax rises in years to come.