In the small print of the Government's water strategy, it was announced that many householders will need to apply for planning permission if they want to pave their front garden.
The Impact Assessment for the changes reveals that this will cost families up to £131 million a year, with the planning permission alone amounting to £875 per family. Local councils will also be required "to monitor compliance" with the new rules - raising the prospect of a new army of council garden inspectors, funded by higher council tax bills.
Eric Pickles, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government, said:
"This makes a mockery of the Government's claims that it wants to cut planning red tape. We should be making it easier, not harder, for people to make small improvements to their homes without requiring planning permission. I fear council tax bills will have to rise to pay for a new army of state snoopers peering into people's gardens.
"This is a problem of the Government's own making - Whitehall planning rules introduced by John Prescott are stopping family homes being built with sufficient parking spaces, in turn forcing people to pave over their front lawns."
Harriett Baldwin, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for West Worcestershire added, "If Labour Ministers were serious about improving urban drainage, they would scrap their garden grabbing planning rules, which are resulting in the concreting over of front and back gardens. In Malvern Hills District in 2005, some 57% of new homes were built by developers buying family houses with gardens, knocking them down and replacing them with denser housing on the same plot."
Under planning rules introduced by John Prescott, gardens are classed as brownfield sites - just like a derelict factory or railway siding - meaning a presumption in favour of development. As a result, it is difficult for local councils to refuse planning permission without the risk that their decision is overturned by the Bristol-based Planning Inspectorate, which enforces Government planning policy.
The loophole has led to mature family homes being demolished and replaced by apartment blocks and carparks covering the whole footprint of the site - house and garden included.
Conservatives are pledging to help protect local gardens, by changing planning rules to give stronger protection to green spaces and allow communities to maintain the character of local neighbourhoods.