The Tories are turning their backs on council tax, with one of their leading figures calling for an end to the ‘unpopular and overworked' levy. The party, which introduced the tax in 1993, has called for reform, with Lord Hanningfield leading the way. The leader of England's second-largest county council, Essex, has published a radical pamphlet entitled He who pays the piper: Reforming local government and reinvigorating local democracy. In it, he demands an end to council tax, saying: ‘The public do not like council tax any more. ‘Local government is unpopular because of council tax, not because of the services provided.' His comments come as it emerged the Labour Government has started covert plans for council tax revaluation. According to the Conservatives, the Valuation Office Agency is preparing to revalue people's homes on the basis of the property's attributes, such as number of bathrooms and bedrooms and type and area of property. It is also claimed the Government had spent £3.2m on developing a revaluation database of every home in England, using US firm, Cole Layer Trumble. Eric Pickles, Conservative shadow secretary of state for local government, said: ‘Labour ministers are guilty of a mass deception. ‘Despite their claims, tax snoopers are burning taxpayers' money on a stealth council tax revaluation to hike bills on family homes.' Even PM Gordon Brown's former special adviser on taxation, Chris Wales, has called for an end to council tax, with authorities given new powers. At a think-tank seminar, he said local authorities should be given the power to set the basic rate of income tax and a national property tax should be introduced.
