VERY few people in the North-East will benefit from flagship Tory plans to make only millionaires pay inheritance tax, it emerged last night.

The estate bequeathed by the average homeowner in nearly every local authority is below the current £300,000 threshold for paying the so-called "death tax", the Tories admitted.

The figures will add to criticism that the Conservatives - sliding in the polls - are concentrating on shoring up their core vote in the South, instead of attempting to woo voters in the North.

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, said only a handful of people would benefit from lifting the threshold above £500,000, his party's proposal.

He added: "Hard-working families in the North-East would benefit more from scrapping the unfair council tax and cutting the basic rate of income tax, as proposed by the Liberal Democrats."

Yesterday, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne won loud applause at the Blackpool conference by pledging to increase the inheritance tax threshold from £300,000 to £1m.

The latest in a blitz of eye-catching tax cuts would lift almost nine million homeowners out of the inheritance tax net, said Mr Osborne. And he vowed: "We will simplify the tax affairs of millions. For millions of people, today sounds the death knell for death taxes."

The move - costing £3.1m - is likely to prove a vote-winner in large parts of the South, where the average property sells for more than £300,000.

Estates above that threshold are hit with a 40 per cent tax bill, although clever accounting allows many richer people to avoid the tax.

The Tories claimed the average North Yorkshire estate does pay inheritance tax, but, across the North-East, only families in the leafiest parts of Northumberland are affected.

Mr Osborne said the £3.1m tax cut would be funded through a flat-rate £25,000 levy on the estimated 110,000 wealthy business people who are registered as living abroad for tax purposes.

The move against so-called "non-doms" cleverly stole a march on Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who has been criticised for failing to close the tax loophole, despite a five-year review.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies, a financial thinktank, was quick to warn the revenue was not guaranteed, because non-domiciled people may choose to move abroad.

But Mr Osborne denied that, telling a fringe meeting: "I think that is not going to happen. For them, what they want is certainty."

Labour said the Shadow Chancellor's proposal would raise a maximum of £650m - leaving the Conservatives with a £2.9bn "black hole".