Methodology

Council tax by band

• England: the government's "Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026/27" (published 25 March 2026). Band amounts are the published area figures for each billing authority (Table 9), which include the average parish precept. Breakdowns by precepting body come from Table 10. Changes on last year use the revised 2025-26 edition.
• Wales: the Welsh Government's council tax levels by billing authority and band, A to I, for 2026/27, which include the average community council precept.
• Scotland: the Scottish Government's "Council Tax by band 2026/27". Water and sewerage charges come from Scottish Water and are the same everywhere in Scotland.

We use the published band amounts rather than deriving them, so they match official figures to the penny. Where we work out a band ourselves (parishes, the calculator), we use the fractions of Band D set in law: 6/9 to 18/9 in England, up to 21/9 for Band I in Wales, and 240/360 to 882/360 in Scotland.

Averages

National averages are the official averages each government publishes, weighted by the number of homes. For regions we show the middle council, because an average of council figures would not be weighted correctly.

Monthly amounts

Monthly figures are the yearly charge divided by 10 or 12. Councils round the first instalment, so a real bill can differ by a few pence.

Parishes

For 214 English councils we show the Band D charge in each of 8,901 parish and town council areas that set a precept: the council area's Band D without parish precepts plus that parish's own Band D precept, from the government's statistics for town and parish councils. Wales does not publish figures for individual community councils, so Welsh pages show the authority average.

Homes by band

Valuation Office Agency "Council Tax: stock of properties" for England and Wales, and the Scottish Government's dwellings by council tax band for Scotland. Counts are rounded by the publishers.

Premiums and local discounts

Second-home and empty-home premiums are set by each council. We collected each council's 2026/27 policy from its own website or published decisions, and for Scotland also from the Scottish Government's policy spreadsheet. We have confirmed the second-home position for 330 of 350 councils so far; others are marked "Not confirmed".

History

Band D over time comes from the government's Band D live table for England (from 1993-94), StatsWales for Wales and the Scottish Government's Band D series for Scotland. New councils created by reorganisation start in their first year; we do not combine predecessor councils.

Postcodes

The postcode finder uses the ONS Postcode Directory. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026. Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0. Northern Ireland postcodes are not included.

Updates and corrections

Figures change once a year. Councils set the next year's rates in February and March and the official statistics follow in March; we update the site as each source is published. If you spot a mistake, tell us with a link to the official source and we'll check and correct it.

Licence

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.