Revaluation ruled out for council tax

Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles also announced an independent review of council tax inspections, which he said would "rein in intrusive snooping" by limiting the data gathered and stored about people's homes.

Mr Pickles said families in England could save up to 320 a year in local tax rises from his decision not to go ahead with a revaluation being planned by Labour.

But Labour denounced his claims as "cynical and misleading", pointing to a pledge in this year's election manifesto which promised: "We will not hold a council tax revaluation in the next Parliament."

Council tax bands in England are based on valuations of property carried out in 1991. Plans for a revaluation of 22 million homes in 2007 were postponed by the former Labour government in 2005, amid anger over a previous exercise in Wales which led to tax rises for many households.

Mr Pickles said the Welsh revaluation led to one-third of homes moving up one or more bands – four times as many as moved down. The less well-off were hit the hardest, with two-thirds of the rises in homes that were originally in the lowest three bands, he said.

If the experience of Wales were repeated in England, families in homes moved up one band from D to E would face a tax hike averaging around 320 a year, said Mr Pickles.

This would increase the burden of council tax bills which rose under Labour from 688 for a typical Band D home in 1997-98 to 1,439 in 2009-10, said the Communities Secretary.

Meanwhile, the taxpayer will save up to 180m on the cost of administering a revaluation exercise, he said.