The Conservatives have claimed that Ministers are drawing up plans to increase council tax bills if you live in an area with low crime, good schools and clean streets.

The Conservatives said that the government has bought computers to analyse areas using census data, crime rates, school performance data, householder income and ethnicity.

A council tax revaluation in Northern Ireland uses a similiar programme and the Tories say it will be now be used in England. Living in a ‘nice’ area could be costly, with some reports of council tax bills rising to £4,000 as a result.

The computer model will be able to classify each household on the basis of 287 “lifestyle variables”.

Under these new plans, the current banding system of taxation would be scrapped and replaced by an annual bill levied at 0.78% of the value of each property, which would push up the average council tax bill in England from £1,056 to £1,492.

The Conservatives said tha if the Northern Ireland system is applied to England, the worst hit households in the country would be in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average tax bill could go up from £1,222 to £5,872.

Other councils which would have rises of at least £1,000 in average bills include Westminster, Wandsworth, Camden, Hammersmith and Fulham, Richmond upon Thames, Islington, South Bucks, Windsor and Maidenhead, Mole Valley, St Albans, Winchester, Brentwood and Epping Forest.

Caroline Spelman, the Conservative Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, said the plans were a “hallmark of an oppressive and greedy government”.

“If Labour introduce this invasive system fully in England, your council tax bill will depend not just on the features of your house, but whether you have good schools or clean streets, and whether you have low or high rates of crime.

“This is the hallmark of an oppressive and greedy government - finding ever more stealth ways to tax working families and pensioners, and trampling over privacy when it suits them.”

The Revaluation of properties for Council Tax in England was postponed last year, and the whole structure of local government is currently being reviewed in an inquiry headed by Sir Michael Lyons.