Families saved £1.28bn in IHT last year by leaving gifts to charities in their wills as more people used charitable legacies to reduce the tax burden on their estates.

There has been huge coverage of IHT and the fact that unused pensions will be subject to inheritance tax from April next year - unless our new Chancellor steps in and waters down or axes this deeply unpopular new burden, as he should.

Families in London and the South East of England paid 46% of all UK inheritance tax bills in the last year - up from 44% the previous year, according to analysis of HMRC data.