TWO elderly sisters who live near Swindon are taking the Government to the European courts in a bid to overturn inheritance tax laws, which would make one of them homeless.

Joyce and Sybil Burden, of Bytham Road, Ogbourne St George, have lived together since birth and designed and built their current £425,000 house 41 years ago.

But if one of them dies, the other will face a £185,000 inheritance tax bill - forcing the surviving sibling to sell the house to cover the cost.

The sisters want the law changed so that co-habiting siblings have the same rights as married couples, which exempts the surviving half from inheritance duty.

Joyce, 88, and Sybil, 80, decided to act after the Civil Partnership Act 2004 granted the same rights to gay and lesbian couples - but not co-habiting family members.

Their ground-breaking case - which will cost them at least £20,000 in legal fees - is due to be heard before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg a week today.

Sybil said: "We are looked down upon for being single. We just want to be treated as equal citizens and given the rights we deserve.

"We've saved the Government thousands by caring for our elderly, sick relatives uintil they passed away and have never claimed a penny apart from the pension.

"Our father, a farmer and methodist preacher, worked so hard all his life for this house - so why should it be taken away from his family?

"It's no different to someone walking into a room and rifling through a dead man's pockets."

Joyce and Sybil grew up on their parents' farm near Marlborough along with three brothers and a third sister.

They moved to Pangbourne, near Reading, in 1948 but moved back to the farm after their father, Frank, died in 1965, aged 75.

The family then built a four-bedroom home on part of the 30-acre Rectory Farm - where they have lived since - and leased out the farm.

Their mother, Elizabeth, died in 1969, aged 80, and their auntie, Laura Farmer, died in her bed in the home in 1966, aged 84.

Their three brothers are also dead and their sister lives in Lincolnshire.

The house is now worth £425,000 - £550,000 with the 30 acres of farmland - but other land assets they own nearby bring their total property assets to £875,000.

The sisters have written to the Chancellor prior to the budget every year since 1976 asking for inheritance tax law for siblings to be overhauled.

But they launched legal action after seeing gays and lesbians handed the very rights they are campaigning for.

Without prior legal advice, the sisters wrote to the European courts in March 2005 - and were stunned when it accepted their case.

A hearing was originally scheduled for July 4, but was postponed because the Government had not fully prepared its case.

Joyce said these were just stalling tactics: "They're just hoping we die before we get to court. But they don't know how determined we are to see this through.

"This Government needs to be shown they can't ride roughshod over ordinary people."