MINISTERS are preparing a double whammy on middle-class homeowners by targeting Britons who have bought second homes in rural areas or inherited property from relatives.

They are trailing the idea of blocking city dwellers from snapping up village homes, or landing them with hefty council tax bills if they do.

Separately David Blunkett, the new pensions secretary, has hinted that people who get a “windfall” in retirement by inheriting their parents’ house could lose part of their state pension top-up benefit.

The pincer movement on property owners, which was not mentioned in Labour’s general election manifesto, is a blow to pensioners and working people saving for their retirement.

Next month Tony Blair will unveil a rural housing commission with a remit to devise ways of curbing the spread of second homes. New planning laws could bar millions of country homes from being sold to wealthy town- dwellers, while those already owning rural retreats may be hit with higher council tax bills than their village-based neighbours.

Several government ministers have revealed their determination to intervene in the housing market. Yvette Cooper, a minister in John Prescott’s department, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, said it recognised concerns about the impact of second home ownership on the affordability and availability of homes for local people.

“The commission will consider whether there is any case for government intervention, through planning control or otherwise, on second homes,” she said.

Two environment ministers have gone further, blaming wealthy retired people who are among the estimated 180,000 second home owners for pricing working people out of affordable housing in many rural areas.

Ben Bradshaw and Jim Knight, who are both junior ministers, wrote in a Devon newspaper: “That is why we are setting up a rural housing commission to report early next year on what further action we can take across central, regional and local government to combat this problem.”

Last week councils welcomed the establishment of the commission. Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, chairman of the Local Government Association and leader of Kent county council, said: “We have asked for local authorities to be given more discretion in dealing with these issues.”

Council leaders also want powers to levy higher rates of council tax on people with a second home or multiple homes.

Ian Elleray, community and housing manager at South Lakeland district council, said:

“Second homes can erode local communities, turning them into dormitory settlements. We would like to see thresholds to limit the numbers of second homes.”

Meanwhile, Blunkett said that housing assets needed to be “put into the equation” to help to solve the country’s multi-billion-pound pensions crisis. He initially wants to target those inheriting homes from relatives.

Although their entitlement to the basic state pension and the second tier “S2P” pension, aimed mainly at low earners, will remain, his comments suggest that other “top-up” benefits such as the pension credit and minimum pension guarantee will be curtailed.

Blunkett said last night that: “In future people will inherit their parents’ homes. You have got to consider these assets and not just a person’s income.”

He said that ministers would have to target state resources at those who did not have the benefit of inheriting valuable homes.

The IPPR, a government-friendly think tank, is looking at a more radical scheme that could force people to sell their homes to fund their retirement.

Dominic Maxwell, who worked on the scheme for the IPPR and is now an adviser to Blunkett, said: “Housing has brought windfall gains to a lot of people and it’s about how you access that wealth.”

Blunkett is understood to have ruled out a flat-rate state pension and is set to introduce a two-tier system that will penalise those who inherit homes. It could make someone inheriting even a modest property more than £1,500 a year worse off.

An increasing number of homeowners are already being caught in the inheritance tax net, which now claims £3 billion a year in death duties, double the figure in 1997.

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