Second-home owners face paying twice the amount of council tax under new laws set to hit nearly half of properties, The Telegraph can reveal.

The Government is preparing to hand local authorities the power to increase the amount of council tax that can be charged on second homes.

The Telegraph can now reveal the scale of the planned raid, with one in four councils in England having pre-emptively agreed to double the levy, raking in an estimated £200 million.

More than 100,000 second-home owners – over 40 per cent of the total – will see their bills rise at the first available opportunity, including in holiday hotspots in Devon, Cornwall, the Lake District and Norfolk, which have already approved the change.

The Labour Party has also already announced that it will introduce further measures to target second-home owners if they gain power.

Second-home owners and leaders in the tourism industry have told The Telegraph that they feel they are being “scapegoated” to make up for the Government’s failure to build affordable homes.