The Government will use data from HIPs to "hike up property taxes", the Conservatives claim, according to 24dash…

Shadow local government and communities secretary Eric Pickles said the HIPs would create a massive property database that will be used for a stealthy revaluation of council tax and tax rises.

Mr Pickles said the database could hold detailed information on 20 million homes by 2014. He predicted that Prime Minister Gordon Brown would use the data to "fill his coffers and hike up property taxes even more".

And he said the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) had made an "explicit bid" to access the database and, given that existing legislation allowed ministers to use it for "any public purpose", granting it would be "a mere formality".

Total codswallop

But his claims were categorically denied by a spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government, who said: "This is total codswallop.

"Time and again we have made clear the VOA will not have access to this register. We have even set it out in the law so there could be no doubt," he insisted.

He added: "No revaluation is currently taking place in England. Reports of a revaluation by stealth are pure invention."

A new energy performance certificate (EPC) will give information on reducing energy consumption and making homes more environmentally friendly.

Mr Pickles warned: "Ministers are now moving ahead with a database of HIPs. This will hold every detail of the - currently voluntary - Home Condition Reports, and the new compulsory EPCs."