How much is council tax in my area?

It depends on your billing authority and your band. For 2026/27 the average band D in England is £2,391.52, but the actual area figure runs from £1,028.21 in Wandsworth to £2,765.02 in Dorset. This page carries the actual charge for every band in every one of the 350 billing authorities in England, Wales and Scotland, from the government's own tables, plus Northern Ireland's domestic rates.

Why is my council tax different from the next town?

Because the bill is a stack: the billing authority, the county council where there is one, the police, the fire authority and, in England, the parish. Each sets its own precept. Two identical band D homes a mile apart can differ by hundreds of pounds because they sit under different stacks, and within one district a home in a precepting parish pays more than one in an unparished area.

Who decides my council tax band?

The Valuation Office Agency in England and Wales, and the local assessor in Scotland, not the council. Bands rest on what the home would have sold for on 1 April 1991 in England and Scotland, and 1 April 2003 in Wales. If you think the band is wrong, the challenge goes to them, and your neighbours' bands are the first evidence to check.

Does Northern Ireland pay council tax?

No. Northern Ireland has domestic rates instead: a regional rate set by the Executive plus a district rate set by each of the eleven councils, charged as pence in the pound on the home's capital value at January 2005, capped at a £400,000 value. A £150,000 home in Belfast pays about £1,508 a year in 2026/27.

← Council tax · Every authority

Your council's actual council tax, every band, every authority.

The averages hide a spread of thousands of pounds. Here is the real figure for all 350 billing authorities in England, Wales and Scotland for 2026/27, every band, straight from the government's own tables, and Northern Ireland's rates system with the arithmetic done. Pick your council and see the whole bill.

Look up your council

Nothing you pick or type leaves your browser.

The lookup needs JavaScript, but nothing here depends on it: the full tables for every nation are published in the data files linked at the bottom of this page, and the averages and spread are in the text.

Northern Ireland, which has no bands at all

No council tax. Households pay domestic rates: a regional rate set by the Executive plus a district rate set by the council, charged as pence in the pound on the home's capital value at 1 January 2005, capped at a £400,000 value.

Help that exists in Northern Ireland and nowhere else:

Rates Housing Benefit and Rate Relief. Means tested help for low income households not on Universal Credit. Homeowners apply through Land and Property Services, tenants through the Housing Executive.
Rate Rebate. For people entitled to Universal Credit. Claimed online through Land and Property Services, backdated at most three months.
Lone Pensioner Allowance. 20 per cent off for ratepayers aged 70 or over living alone. Not means tested.
Disabled Persons Allowance. 25 per cent off where the home is adapted for a resident with a disability. Not affected by income or savings.

Discounts that apply before any of these figures

The figures above are the full bill. A quarter of households pay less than the number shown, mostly through the first line here.

Living alone

25 per cent off, everywhere in England, Wales and Scotland. It also applies where everyone else in the home is disregarded, such as full time students or people with a severe mental impairment.

All students

A household where everyone is a full time student pays nothing.

Severe mental impairment

A person with a severe mental impairment, certified by a doctor and eligible for certain benefits, is disregarded entirely.

Disabled band reduction

A home with an extra room, kitchen or bathroom needed for a disabled resident, or space for wheelchair use indoors, is charged one band lower. A band A home gets the equivalent reduction.

Second homes

Councils in England can charge up to double on a furnished second home. In Wales up to four times. In Scotland a 100 per cent premium became the national default in April 2026 and councils can now go above it.

Empty homes

In England up to double after one year empty, triple after five and quadruple after ten. Wales up to four times. These are premiums the council chooses, so they differ by council.

Council Tax Reduction

In England every council runs its own scheme for working age people, and pension age rules are national. Scotland and Wales each run one national scheme. If money is tight this is the first thing to check, and it is on our help page.

Where this comes from, and where it could be wrong

England296 authorities

England comes from MHCLG's own tables, read from the published file itself. The average band D including parish precepts is £2,391.52 and this dataset reproduces it.

Wales and Scotland22 and 32

Wales from StatsWales with every band checked against the statutory ninths. Scotland from the Scottish Government's own file, and 29 of the 32 councils' own websites were read separately as a second check. All 29 agree to the penny.

The law as a testEvery band

Band ratios are statute, not convention. Every figure here has been checked as an exact ratio of its authority's band D, so a misread number cannot survive the build.

Ways this page could mislead you

The England figures are the average for the billing authority's area including the average parish precept, which is how the government publishes them. A home in a parish with a precept pays more than the figure shown and a home in an unparished part pays less. The gap is real: parish precepts average £100 at band D and total £942 million.

Your band is decided by the Valuation Office Agency in England and Wales and by the assessor in Scotland, not by the council, and it rests on 1991 values in England and Scotland and 2003 values in Wales. If the band is wrong, the challenge goes to them.

These are the full bills before any discount. A quarter of homes get the single person discount alone.

Scotland's figures exclude water and sewerage, which are collected on the same bill. Our water page carries those charges by band.

Northern Ireland has no bands at all. The calculator on this page does the poundage arithmetic for a capital value you type in.

Sources

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