Home owners in Fenland are being hit with higher council tax bills than one of the richest boroughs in London.

Fen rate payers are charged almost £700 more than the borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

The news has been slammed by a lobby group which says it is time that Government cash boosts are equally distributed.

Rural areas are significantly underfunded when compared to urban areas, according to lobby group Sparse who said it is time things were evened out.

A spokesman for Sparse, said: “We want fairer funding for rural areas.

“We appreciate that we are in a time of austerity and cuts are being made to local government funding, however we are campaigning for a fairer distribution of the funds, so that historical imbalances where rural areas are penalised, do not continue.”

The Fens council tax bills are higher than London boroughs yet wages are lower.

It is also higher than nearby Cambridge, Ely and the Norfolk coastal town of Burnham Market, dubbed Chelsea by the sea.

Rates for an average four bedroom family home in Band D are:

• Fenland £1,742.

• Kensington and Chelsea £1,062.

• Ely £1,649.

• Cambridge £1,630.

• Burnham Market £1,633.

Cuts in grants have been difficult for all local authorities to live with over the last five years, Sparse said.

Under the four year final local Government settlement, rural areas will lose more than 31 per cent of their central Government funding, whilst urban areas, will lose about 22 per cent.

This comes after chronic under funding of rural areas by successive governments, despite the acknowledged higher cost of providing services to remote communities and the lower than average incomes of people living in them, they added.