Homebuyers in the North-East are paying up to £1,275 more in stamp duty than when Labour came to power because it is used as a "stealth" tax, it was claimed today.

Families struggling to get on the housing ladder are punished by the government's failure to raise the threshold for paying stamp duty in line with soaring prices, the Tories said.

The average hike is even higher in North Yorkshire, where bills have risen by up to £1,425 under Tony Blair.

Duty is paid at one per cent on all properties above £60,000 - the same starting point as in 1997, despite rampant price rises since then.

Chancellor Gordon Brown also introduced a three per cent rate for homes worth more than £250,000 and a four per cent rate above £500,000. Both thresholds have remained unchanged.

The increases across the North-East are enormous because, back in 1997, the average house cost less than £60,000 and therefore incurred no stamp duty.

Now, according to the Tories, the average housebuyer in Chester-le-Street pays £1,275, followed by Washington (£1,224), Durham (£1,158), Darlington (£1,157) and Sunderland (£1,112).

In North Yorkshire, the biggest rise in duty is in Knaresborough (£1,425).

followed by Harrogate (£1,378), Richmond (£1,208) and York (£1,119).

According to a house price survey earlier this year, 75 per cent of first-time buyers are paying the property tax, compared to just 18 per cent ten years ago.

Homebuyers dragged into the stamp duty net are hit particularly hard because the tax is levied on the entire value of the house - not simply the value above £60,000.

Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin said: "When house prices are rising, and stamp duty thresholds do not rise with them, the Chancellor increases taxes for homeowners."

But a Treasury spokeswoman said around a quarter of residential property transactions did not incur any stamp duty and, of those which did, nearly two-thirds paid the one per cent rate.

"Stamp duty remains a very small proportion of overall housing costs, and property transaction costs are far lower in the UK than the rest of the EU or US, where costs are typically twice as high."