The Conservatives have launched an attack on council tax levels in London.

The party’s mayoral candidate Steven Norris claimed the capital’s residents were in for "an unpleasant surprise" when the new bills for the coming year go out next week.

Norris claimed that since Ken Livingstone was elected, council tax bills in the Capital have doubled.

The party has calculated that every homeowner in London has paid £750 over the last four years to the mayor.

Norris predicted that if the mayor is returned to City Hall, that figure would double again in the next four years.

"Thanks to Ken Livingstone you pay more every year and get less and less," said Norris.

"Like every one of his Labour colleagues he only has one reaction to any problem and that's to throw money at it."

The Liberal Democrats also challenged Labour's record on council tax.

They pointed to their calls for an 11 pence per week increase rather than the 33 pence rise that Livingstone has settled on.

"It is scandalous that despite only one-third of the Assembly agreeing to Mr Livingstone's tax hike, his inflation busting increase was forced through," said the party's mayoral candidate Simon Hughes.

"Ken Livingstone has now doubled his chunk of council tax since he came to power. It is time that he stopped throwing around other people's cash and started to offer real value for money to the taxpayers of London."