England's north-south divide is being blamed for spiralling council tax bills.

The Government is accused of pandering to traditionally worse-off counties such as Yorkshire and Lancashire at the expense of people living in Sussex and Surrey.

Local authorities in the South-East think the new funding formula for councils, which gives more money to those areas with the highest depravation, is unfair and fails to take into account their own very poor areas.

Official statistics seem to bear this out, with figures from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister showing the biggest increases going to councils in the five northern and Midlands regions.

Average increases in those parts of the country fall between six and seven per cent, well ahead of the 4.5 per cent allocated to councils in the South-East.

Daphne Bagshawe, deputy leader of East Sussex County Council, said: "It is not without significance that most of the local authorities in the South are Conservative-controlled and in the north there are a lot of Labour marginals."

A spokesman from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said this idea of bias was "clumsy and inaccurate".

He said: "It is true the formula has changed to recognise deprivation and the Government does not apologise for that.

"The minimum councils are getting is three to four per cent, the maximum is 12.

"It is not as if there are huge rises in different parts of the country."