Council Tax bands explained: what each costs and how to find yours

Council Tax bands are letters A to H (A to I in Wales) set by your home's value on a fixed date

A Council Tax band is the letter your home is placed in according to what it would have sold for on a fixed valuation date, and it decides what share of your council's charge you pay. England and Scotland have 8 bands, A to H. Wales has 9, A to I.

According to GOV.UK, bands in England are based on what the property would have sold for on the open market on 1 April 1991, and in Wales on 1 April 2003. Scotland also uses 1 April 1991 values. The ranges are written into section 5 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 for England and Wales, and section 74 for Scotland, so they are law rather than policy.

Today's price of your home does not decide the band. A flat bought for £250,000 in 2026 can sit in Band B if similar flats were worth £40,001 to £52,000 in England in April 1991. GOV.UK says the Valuation Office does not use house price indexes to set bands, and discounts such as Right to Buy are ignored.

Band A is the cheapest band and Band H (Band I in Wales) is the dearest

Band A always costs the least and the top band always costs the most, because every band is a fixed fraction of Band D. Band D is the benchmark: it is the charge for a Band D home with 2 or more adults, and each council sets that one figure every year. The other bands follow by law.

According to section 5 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, bands in England are charged in the proportion 6:7:8:9:11:13:15:18, and Wales adds 21 for Band I. Section 74 sets Scotland's proportion as 240:280:320:360:473:585:705:882, following a 2016 order that raised Bands E to H from April 2017. So Band A pays two thirds of Band D everywhere, but a Scottish Band H home pays 2.45 times Band D, against 2 times in England and Wales.

The ratios also mean the gap between the cheapest and dearest home is capped. In England a Band H mansion pays 3 times what a Band A terrace pays in the same parish (18 against 6). In Wales the Band I multiple is 3.5, and in Scotland it is 3.675.

What council tax band am I? Check it free on GOV.UK or the Scottish Assessors website

You can find the band of any home in England or Wales free with the GOV.UK Check your Council Tax band service, by searching its postcode or address. The service is run by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), which bands every home in England and Wales, and it is also available in Welsh. It lists every address on the street, so you can see your neighbours' bands as well as your own.

For a home in Scotland, GOV.UK and mygov.scot both direct you to the Scottish Assessors Association website, where you search the same way. In Scotland, local assessors set bands rather than the VOA.

Your band is also printed on your Council Tax bill. If the band looks wrong next to similar homes on your street, our guide on how to challenge your Council Tax band covers the evidence and the deadlines.

A few homes show as deleted. GOV.UK says the VOA can remove a band from a property that is empty and beyond repair or going through major works that make it uninhabitable, and no Council Tax is due until it is banded again.

How much is Council Tax in 2026/27? England's average Band D is £2,392

The average Band D Council Tax in England for 2026/27 is £2,392, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), published 25 March 2026. That is £111, or 4.9%, more than in 2025/26, and it includes adult social care and parish precepts. In Wales, the Welsh Government puts the average Band D for 2026/27 at £2,283, up £113 or 5.2%.

Applying the legal ratios to those averages gives what an average home in each band pays for 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 with 2 or more adults and no discount. We worked these out with the same engine as our Council Tax calculator, which does the sum for your own council, band and household.

Most households pay less than the Band D average. MHCLG says Bands A to C account for nearly two thirds of homes in England, and puts the average bill per dwelling at £1,868 for 2026/27. The range between areas is wide: in the area averages our calculator uses, England's Band D runs from £1,028.21 in Wandsworth to £2,765.02 in Dorset.

Council Tax by band in Leeds, Glasgow and Cardiff, 2026/27

The same band costs very different amounts in different councils, as these three cities show. Each column starts from the council's own 2026/27 Band D and applies its country's ratios, computed with the Council Tax calculator engine.

Leeds is the area average for the Leeds district, including the average parish precept. Glasgow's figures exclude the Scottish Water water and waste water charges that are billed with Council Tax in Scotland. Cardiff has the lowest Band D of Wales's 22 councils in 2026/27, at £2,013.18. Glasgow's Band A is 75% of the Leeds figure but its Band H is 92%, because Scotland's upper-band ratios are steeper.

Worked example: Band C in Leeds, month by month. A Band C home in Leeds with two adults owes £2,029.98 for 2026/27. Under the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992, the default is 10 monthly instalments: all but the first are rounded to whole pounds, so the bill is £202.98 followed by 9 payments of £203. If you ask in writing for 12 instalments, it becomes £170.98 then 11 payments of £169. According to GOV.UK, you get 25% off if you live on your own, the single person discount, which for this home cuts the year to £1,522.49, the same as a full Band A bill. Other councils are on the Council Tax by council pages, such as Manchester and Birmingham.

Why the same band costs more in one council than another

The same band costs different amounts because each council, and every authority that adds a precept to its bill, sets its own Band D charge each year. The bands and ratios are national; the pounds are local.

According to MHCLG, a bill in England can include charges for the billing council, a county council (or the Greater London Authority in London), fire and rescue, the police and crime commissioner, a combined authority, and a parish or town council. The main reasons one area's Band D is higher than another's are:

• Parish and town council precepts. MHCLG says 8,902 parishes charge a precept in 2026/27, averaging £100 on a Band D home in the areas that have one, and raising £942 million in total. Two streets in the same district can pay different amounts if one is in a parish and the other is not.
• The adult social care precept. Councils responsible for adult social care could add up to 2% extra in 2026/27. MHCLG says 142 of the 153 used all of it, which accounts for £35 of the average Band D bill.
• How much each council raises from Council Tax. Councils with a large tax base or more income from grants and business rates can set a lower Band D. Wandsworth's area Band D of £1,028.21 is less than 38% of Dorset's.
• Police and community councils in Wales. The Welsh Government's £2,283 average includes £400 for police and £52 for community councils.

Rises in England are limited by referendum principles. For 2026/27, MHCLG says councils with adult social care duties needed a local referendum to raise their core charge by 5% or more, with higher limits agreed for 7 named councils. Scotland and Wales set their own rules.

Council Tax bands do not change with house prices, but can change after building work or a sale

Your Council Tax band stays the same when house prices rise, because it is fixed to the 1991 or 2003 value. England and Scotland have never been revalued since Council Tax started in April 1993. Wales was revalued once, using 2003 values, from 1 April 2005.

A band can change in specific cases. GOV.UK lists these, among others:

• you demolish part of your home and do not rebuild it;
• you create a self-contained annexe, or split a house into flats, as each unit gets its own band;
• you convert flats into one home;
• there are big changes to your area, such as a new road;
• a similar property nearby has its band changed.

An extension does not usually change your band straight away. GOV.UK says that if a property has increased in size since it was first assessed, it may move to a higher band when it is next sold. That is why a buyer can find a higher band than the seller paid.

Wales is changing its system. The Welsh Government says it will revalue homes in 2028 and then every 5 years. Until then, the 2003 bands and the ratios above apply.

Check your band, then work out your own bill

Start with your band from the GOV.UK lookup or the Scottish Assessors, then put it into the Council Tax calculator with your council and who lives with you. It shows the yearly bill, the 10 and 12 instalment amounts, and what a discount or the Disabled Band Reduction would take off.

Then check whether you are paying more than you need to. A sole adult, a household with students or carers, or someone on a low income may pay much less: our guide to Council Tax discounts and reductions lists each one. If your home in England is worth £2 million or more, the separate guide to the mansion tax covers the High Value Council Tax Surcharge due in England from April 2028.