Council Tax Bands Explained: How Your Bill Is Set in 2026
Two near-identical homes can sit in the same council tax band and still land their owners with wildly different bills. A Band D household in Wandsworth, south-west London, pays £1,028.21 for 2026-27. A Band D household in Dorset pays £2,765.02 (gov.uk). Same band, a £1,736.81 gap — and Dorset's bill is 2.7 times Wandsworth's.
That gap is not an error. It is the product of the two separate things that decide every council tax bill: the band a property sits in, and the rate the local authority sets for that band. This guide explains both — what the A-to-H bands actually mean, why they are still pinned to 1991 property values, how the bands relate to one another, and why the same band costs almost three times as much depending on where you live.
What a council tax band is
Every domestic property in England is placed in one of eight bands, A to H. The band is set by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), an arm of HMRC — not by the local council. The council sets only the rate; the VOA decides the band.
The band is based on what the property would have sold for on 1 April 1991 — not what it is worth today. England has never revalued. A home built in 2025 is still banded by estimating its notional 1991 value. This is why "Band A" does not mean a £40,000 house in 2026: it means a property whose 1991 value fell in the lowest bracket.
| Band | Value on 1 April 1991 |
|---|---|
| A | Up to £40,000 |
| B | £40,001 to £52,000 |
| C | £52,001 to £68,000 |
| D | £68,001 to £88,000 |
| E | £88,001 to £120,000 |
| F | £120,001 to £160,000 |
| G | £160,001 to £320,000 |
| H | More than £320,000 |
Source: Valuation Office Agency / gov.uk.
Because the bands are frozen at 1991 levels, the band tells you very little about a property's current market price. That mismatch is starkest at the top of the market, where present-day prices have moved far beyond their 1991 banding — as the gap between sale prices and bands in the most expensive postcodes in the UK shows.
How the bands relate to each other
The eight bands are not priced independently. The law fixes the ratio between them. Band D is the reference point, set at nine-ninths, and every other band is a fixed proportion of it (Local Government Finance Act 1992, section 5).
| Band | Proportion of Band D | Multiple of D | Approx. bill at the median authority* |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 6/9 | 0.67x | £1,628 |
| B | 7/9 | 0.78x | £1,899 |
| C | 8/9 | 0.89x | £2,170 |
| D | 9/9 | 1.00x | £2,441 |
| E | 11/9 | 1.22x | £2,984 |
| F | 13/9 | 1.44x | £3,527 |
| G | 15/9 | 1.67x | £4,069 |
| H | 18/9 | 2.00x | £4,883 |
\Applying the statutory ratios to the median English Band D of £2,441.46 for 2026-27. Figures rounded.*
Two facts fall straight out of this:
- Band A always pays two-thirds of Band D, and Band H always pays exactly double Band D.
- The whole A-to-H range is a threefold spread: the top band is three times the bottom band, everywhere, by law. A council cannot decide to charge Band H homes, say, ten times Band A.
So once you know an area's Band D figure, you can calculate every other band by multiplying. One quirk worth knowing: Band D is the statutory reference band, not the most common one. Most English homes are actually in Bands A to C — Band D is simply the benchmark every headline figure is quoted against.
Why the same band costs different amounts
The band sets the ratio; the local authority sets the cash value of Band D, and everything else follows from it. Across all 296 English billing authorities, the average Band D bill for 2026-27 is £2,410.97 and the median is £2,441.46 (gov.uk). The spread is wide but the middle is crowded: 145 of the 296 authorities — almost half — set a Band D between £2,300 and £2,499.
Only three authorities charge a Band D under £1,500, and all three are in central London. Nine charge under £2,000. At the other end, nine authorities charge above £2,700.
| Lowest Band D 2026-27 | £ | Highest Band D 2026-27 | £ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wandsworth | 1,028.21 | Dorset | 2,765.02 |
| Westminster | 1,049.55 | Lewes | 2,756.17 |
| City of London | 1,329.56 | Nottingham | 2,755.39 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 1,519.51 | Rutland | 2,737.58 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 1,666.65 | Wealden | 2,728.43 |
Source: gov.uk council tax statistics, 2026-27. Figures are the area Band D and include police, fire, adult-social-care and (in London) the Greater London Authority precept where applicable.
Apply the band ratios to those two extremes and the divergence compounds. A Band H home in Dorset is charged £5,530 for the year; a Band A home in Wandsworth, £685. Even comparing like for like, a Band D mover relocating from Wandsworth to Dorset would see the council tax line of their running costs rise by £1,737 a year — before a single other bill changes.
The Wandsworth paradox: low tax, high prices
It is tempting to assume the cheapest council tax areas are the cheapest places to live. The data says the opposite at the extreme. The two lowest Band D bills in England — Wandsworth and Westminster — sit in some of the country's priciest property markets, while several authorities with the highest bills are in lower-priced regions.
The reason is structural, not a reward for buyers: council tax is a flat per-authority charge on frozen 1991 valuations, not a percentage of today's price. Inner-London boroughs such as Westminster combine a very large commercial tax base with historically low Band D rates, so their residential bills stay low even as sale prices climb. You can see the same inversion play out alongside the price data in our guide to average house prices across London's boroughs.
Bands work differently across the UK
The A-to-H system above is England-specific. The rest of the UK diverges:
- Wales revalued its homes in 2003 and uses nine bands, A to I (an extra top band), so a Welsh band letter is not comparable to an English one (gov.wales).
- Scotland keeps eight bands on 1991 values, but the multipliers for the top four bands (E to H) were increased in 2017 — so higher-band Scottish homes pay proportionally more relative to Band D than their English equivalents (mygov.scot).
- Northern Ireland has no bands at all. Domestic rates are charged as a percentage of each property's capital value as assessed in 2005 (nidirect).
If you are comparing the cost of moving between nations, the band letter alone will mislead you.
How to check or challenge a band
Anyone can look up the band of any property in England or Wales free of charge on the VOA's "Check your Council Tax band" service (gov.uk/council-tax-bands). If you believe a band is wrong, you can ask the VOA to review it, and in limited circumstances — for example within six months of becoming the new liable taxpayer, or after a material change to the property — you can make a formal proposal to alter it.
One caution worth stating plainly: a review can move a band up as well as down, and a successful challenge on one property can prompt a review of similar neighbouring homes. This is general information, not advice; the eligibility rules are specific and a review carries that two-way risk.
See it for your own postcode
Council tax is only one line in the true cost of a home — it sits alongside the mortgage, energy and maintenance. To see how the band-D rate in a specific area stacks up against everything else, check the full monthly running cost of any postcode and read the true cost of buying a £300,000 home for the full breakdown. For more on how UK property costs are built up, browse our buyer guides.
These figures are drawn from the 2026-27 Band D council tax set by all 296 English billing authorities. Explore more cost guides on the Homecost blog.
This is general information, not advice. Speak to a qualified adviser before acting.