Rising council tax bills have cost average householders more than £1,500 since Labour took office, the Conservatives have said.

Figures published on Monday by Caroline Spelman indicated that band D bills in England have risen from £689 in 1997/98 to £1,167 this year.

The shadow local government secretary said the £478 increase showed that local council charges had become "the ultimate stealth tax".

Ministers argued that Tory councils had raised taxes by more than their Labour controlled counterparts.

But Spelman said that band D householders charged over the whole eight years would have paid out a total of £1,716 more than if bills had remained unchanged.

"Labour have turned council tax into the ultimate stealth tax - engineered by Gordon Brown to rise by three times the rate of inflation every year, but with local councillors taking the blame when bills hit the doorstep," she added.

"I doubt any household believes that their local public services have improved by the same amount that their local tax bills have soared.

"The truth is that Labour's higher taxes have been wasted on armies of clipboard inspectors, regional talking shops and fat government."

But local government minister Nick Raynsford said the government was capping excessive council tax rises.

"Government work on reducing council tax resulted last year in seeing tax increases reduce by half. We expect further reductions next year," he said.

"As Conservative council tax increases are on average 5.5 per cent compared with 4.9 per cent for Labour, it is clear that Caroline Spelman should be more concerned about ensuring that Conservative-run councils reduce their council tax."