Mr Davis promised to look at how funding was distributed

Shadow deputy prime minister David Davis made the claim as he denounced a 70% rise in councils taxes in his speech to the annual Tory conference in Blackpool.

He said, in government, his party would review how cash is shared out between local authorities.

The Tories accuse the government of using a complicated system for "gerrymandering" but are not saying they would scrap the council tax or even cut it.

Mr Davis also pledged the Conservatives to oppose "every inch of the way" moves to set up regional assemblies in the series of referendum planned for some parts of the country.

Tax battle

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott last week threatened to use emergency powers to cap local councils putting up taxes too far - saying Tory authorities were often the worst offenders.

Some councils in southern England this year complained that the way Whitehall had distributed funds around the country was unfair and had left them with no option but to raise taxes.

Mr Davis said Tony Blair had promised not to raise taxes but since coming to power had presided over 60 tax hikes.

Perhaps the most pernicious rises were on council taxes, he told Tory representatives.

"Up under Labour by 70% - for one overwhelming reason - because of the way this government has fixed and fiddled on a scale not seen since Robert Maxwell," he said.

"Moving money from good councils, usually run by Conservatives, to bad councils, usually run by Labour or the Lib Dems, shifting the costs and passing the buck to our hard-working councillors around the county."

'Needs not demands'

Mr Davis said council tax payers had fought back when the Tories had won hundreds of council seats in May's local elections.

He also claimed Liberal Democrat plans for a local income tax would cost a typical family an extra �600 a year, urging activists to "hang that price tag round the neck of every Liberal Democrat".

Promising a fair deal for local government, he continued: "I am announcing today a major review of local government finance to give councils the freedom to spend money to meet their constituents' needs, not Whitehall's demands."