Sandie Seward
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Pay more if you live in a 'Good Area'.People who live in areas with good schools and low crime rates could be facing huge increases in council tax. Homeowners and tenants can expect to pay four times more than they already do if their locality is deemed more desirable than others, according to The Sunday Telegraph.
The paper says it could lead to people paying hundreds or even thousands of pounds more for local services.
Conservatives claim the Government wants to extend a scheme being tested in Northern Ireland to tax
people for the "neighbourhood they live in".
But the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) dismissed the claims as "scaremongering" and insisted Northern Ireland was not a test ground for forthcoming reforms in England.
Under the scheme the paper says all 21 million homes in England would be revalued according to their location, as well as size and features.
The current banding system would be scrapped and replaced with an annual bill levied at 0.78% of the value of each property, it said.
The paper cites a Parliamentary written answer by Local Government Minister Phil Woolas, in which he says: "The market for dwellings may well be influenced by levels of crime and deprivation amongst many other factors."
Shadow local government secretary Caroline Spelman said: "Labour intends to tax you not just for every home improvement, but also the neighbourhood you live in.
"This is the hallmark of an oppressive and greedy government - finding ever more stealthy ways to tax working families and pensioners, and trampling over privacy when it suits them."
The claims come as a review of local government including town hall finances is expected within months.
A spokesman for the DCLG said: "We have made no changes to the policies on inspection in England since the previous government set them in 1993, and we have no intention of changing these.
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Tricia
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Scaremongering? I don't think so.  This government will seize on anything they can do to get its hands in our pockets. The eventual aim will probably be for everyone to have their salary/pensions/dividends etc paid direct to the government who will then allocate us our spending money.
The whole ethos of the community charge is iniquitous as it is based entirely on the theoretical value of a property and should, in my view, be replaced by a local income tax. Many people live in houses which they bought many years ago (mine, in 1964, cost £3,300). They have done various things over the years to improve their homes but, in many cases, the 'nice' area they bought into has now deteriorated, though the value of the property has risen considerably.
There is a list of things in the Mail today which can be taken into consideration to decide what type of area you live in when setting the new charges, such as what newspapers people in your area read, the size of their phone bill, where they go on holiday - the list is endless. Note: It is 'people in your area' not specifically you. Pity those who are hanging on to their home by the skin of their teeth in the face of ever-increasing taxes and charges for basic amenities such as gas/electricity/water.
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Sandie Seward
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Tricia, this present government is broke, and deeply in debt to the I.M.F. It no longer gets so much funding from the unions, simply because the unions themselves are shadows of their former selves.
They are therefore, looking at every means possible to try to get money from the public, namely the so called 'Middle Classes' who are fighting an ever harder battle to survive. The more you try to 'Keep up with the Jones'es', the more you have to pay in punitive taxation. All this claptrap about global warming is just yet a further example of how they propose to levy extra taxation on people who are already struggling to pay what they have to pay now. 
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Ken R
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I think before the govenment even thinks about implementing these so called "green taxes", they should explain to the electorate,ie. us, how many other countries are implementing similar taxes.
How many other countries are going to tax 4x4 gas guzzlers, increase tax on people who live in "nice" areas,charge their people to dispose of weekly rubbish on top of the tax already levied by councils to cover waste disposal, tax people who have, at various governments requests in the past,fitted double glazing to help cut down heating bills..........The list goes on !
This government seems to be determined to "lead the way" in the fight against global warming etc. The thing is, if others don't or won't follow suit, whats the point ? It doesn't mattter on jot if we halve our ouptut of greenhouse gases, if the rest of the world, especially the big polluters such as China,Russia, India and the good old US of A carry on as before. What we British actually produce in the way of harmful emmissions, is virtually insignificant compared to these others.
At the end of the day, will it cut back on the number of people who want to come here to live ? Will it hell ! Most of them don't pay taxes, live in nice areas, drive big 4x4s,fly around Europe etc. They don't even pay taxes to begin with, how are they goning to made to pay their share ? The answer is that they aren't going to pay, they will continue to be a drain on our society whilst contributing absolutely nothing towards their upkeep, whilst we, the mugs who work hard, pay taxes and register with local councils, will be squeezed tighter and tighter !
It makes you proud to be law abiding doesn't it ? 
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dorramae
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Seems to me that soon we will all have a special gadjet attahed to count our breaths, and we will pay maybe a pound for each incoming breath. The benefit they will promote is that all outing ones will be FREE Won't we be the lucky ones. 
BUILD UP YPUR CREDIT RATING- ONLY BREATH CARBON MONOXCIDE
Sorry folks I must be in a critical mood this morning. mybe it because its Halloene 
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