Families could see their council tax bills treble under Labour plans for a 'garden tax', the Tories claimed last night.

The small print of Jeremy Corbyn's manifesto contains proposals to replace council tax and business rates with a Land Value Tax (LVT) on homes and gardens.

Labour has pledged to use the levy –based on the land value rather than property prices – to raise extra money for their spending splurge.

The Conservatives last night put the average cost at nearly £4,000 and warned the 'devastating' and 'destructive' tax would send house prices plummeting and plunge mortgage holders into negative equity.

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured today in London with June O'Sullivan, Chief Executive of the London Early Years Foundation) is set treble council tax bills for some families, the Tories have claimed

The Foreign Secretary declared the charge, which he branded the 'garden tax', would force families to sell off their backyards and send food prices soaring if farmers are forced to pay.

A costings document that accompanies Labour's manifesto lets slip the party's plan to hold a 'review into reforming council tax and business rates and consider new options such as a land value tax, to ensure local government has sustainable funding for the long term'.

A blueprint for how the new tax would work has been drawn up by the Labour Land Campaign, which has received glowing praise from both Mr Corbyn and his Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who has said the levy will 'raise the funds we need'.

Jeremy Corbyn, pictured today., is hitting Britons with higher taxes to bankroll his public spending splurge

The small print of Jeremy Corbyn's (pictured on the Sky / Channel 4 election special) manifesto contains proposals to replace council tax and business rates with a Land Value Tax (LVT) on homes and gardens

Families with gardens could be hit by a bigger tax bill under Labour manifesto plans

Britons with home in the South East are expected to be hit hardest by the new land tax

Under proposals, the new tax would be imposed as an up to 3 per cent levy on the value of land.

A Tory analysis estimates this would result in a yearly tax bill of £3,837 for an average family home in England – a massive 224 per cent increase on the current average council tax bill of £1,185.

The calculations are based on the assumption that land value is about 55 per cent of a house price.

The tax would fall hardest on areas with higher land prices, including London, the South and flourishing market towns. Tory campaign chiefs warned that some families could be forced to sell off their gardens to lower their bills and that it would incentivise people to build over green space.

The National Farmers Union has warned that if agricultural land, which is currently exempt from council tax and business rates, is also hit it would simply lead to hikes in food prices.

JEREMY CORBYN PRAISED 'HARD-WORKING' HAMAS Jeremy Corbyn's links to Hamas were in the spotlight again last night after it emerged he had praised the Palestinian terror group as 'serious and hard-working'. In an LBC interview recorded in 2010, Mr Corbyn said: 'It is not a question of whether one agrees or disagrees with Hamas on its political strategies ... They are serious, hard-working and they are not corrupt.' He later criticised the Israelis for not entering peace talks with the terror group, and called for a trade deal between the EU and Israel to be suspended. The comments resurfaced just days after the Labour leader was forced to admit he met members of the IRA and it emerged he laid a wreath for a PLO terrorist behind the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: 'Jeremy believes all parties that have credible levels of popular and electoral support, including Hamas, need to be part of the peace process.' Advertisement

Labour business spokesman Rebecca Long-Bailey earlier this month endorsed plans to have 'a land tax to ensure local government has sustainable funding in the long term'. Mr McDonnell has previously said the levy would be a 'radical alternative to austerity'.

During his leadership campaign in 2015, Mr Corbyn said he had been 'impressed by the work of the Labour Land Campaign … on making the case for LVT which can capture for local benefit some of the private gains generated by public investment'.

But Boris Johnson said yesterday: 'Jeremy Corbyn needs to hit ordinary working families with a bombshell of new taxes to pay for his reckless hard-Left giveaways, and this lays bare the price we would all pay.

The Conservatives last night put the average cost at nearly £4,000 and warned the 'devastating' and 'destructive' tax would send house prices plummeting

'Corbyn's garden tax will send tax bills soaring, house prices plummeting, plunge people into negative equity and force families to build over their back gardens.

'This nonsensical policy sums up how Jeremy Corbyn, along with his SNP, Lib Dem and Green comrades in the coalition of chaos would bring misery to every single family in Britain.

'It would wreck our economy, devastate farmers and increase the cost of food on the shelves.'

A Labour spokesman last night dismissed the criticism, saying: 'This is desperate nonsense from the Tories. Labour has no such plans.'

n David Dimbleby has claimed that Jeremy Corbyn has had an 'unfair deal' at the hands of 'Right-wing' press. Despite the Labour leader's poor poll performance, the broadcaster said: 'A lot of Labour supporters really like and believe in the messages that Jeremy Corbyn is bringing across.'