How much is council tax in each band in England for 2026-27?
The average Band D council tax bill in England for 2026-27 is £2,392.00 a year. Every other band is a fixed fraction of Band D, so the average runs from £1,594.67 for a Band A home to £4,784.00 for Band H.
If you live alone, the single person discount takes 25% off, which brings an average Band D bill down to £1,794.00. And where you live matters as much as your band: among the 6 English councils we looked at, Band D runs from £1,049.55 in Westminster to £2,713.68 in Bristol.
How we worked out these numbers
Two sets of figures sit behind this page, and both come from the government's own 2026-27 council tax statistics.
The England average starts from the Band D figure in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) release for 2026-27. That figure includes the adult social care precept and parish precepts. We then applied each band's statutory ratio to it using the same engine as the UK council tax calculator on this site.
The council figures come from that calculator directly. It holds six English councils, and for each one it uses the area average Band D that MHCLG publishes in its local authority table. That is the council's own charge plus the police, fire and, where they apply, county, Greater London Authority or combined authority precepts, plus the average parish precept across the area.
We checked those six against the MHCLG table while writing this page. Four of them were out of date in the calculator, including Westminster, whose Band D figure was far too high. We corrected all four from the published table before running any numbers.
Why the bands follow a fixed ladder
Council tax bands in England are based on what a home would have sold for on 1 April 1991, not what it's worth now. Each band pays a set fraction of the Band D charge that your council sets:
- Band A pays six ninths, or 66.7% of Band D
- Bands B and C pay seven and eight ninths
- Band E pays eleven ninths, or 122.2%
- Bands F and G pay thirteen and fifteen ninths
- Band H pays eighteen ninths, or 200.0%, exactly double Band D
So once you know your council's Band D figure, you can work out every band from it. That's all the calculator does: it multiplies Band D by your band's ratio and, if you tick it, applies the single person discount.
The average bill in every band
Click any column heading to sort. The monthly column simply divides the year by 12. Most councils actually collect over ten months unless you ask for twelve, so your real instalments are likely to be higher than that.
Average council tax in England by band, 2026-27
Download CSVEngland average Band D of £2,392.00 (MHCLG, including adult social care and parish precepts) scaled by each band's statutory ratio. Single-person column applies the 25% single occupant discount. Pounds.
| Band A | 66.7% | £1,594.67 | £132.89 | £1,196 |
| Band B | 77.8% | £1,860.44 | £155.04 | £1,395.33 |
| Band C | 88.9% | £2,126.22 | £177.19 | £1,594.67 |
| Band D | 100.0% | £2,392 | £199.33 | £1,794 |
| Band E | 122.2% | £2,923.56 | £243.63 | £2,192.67 |
| Band F | 144.4% | £3,455.11 | £287.93 | £2,591.33 |
| Band G | 166.7% | £3,986.67 | £332.22 | £2,990 |
| Band H | 200.0% | £4,784 | £398.67 | £3,588 |
The difference between the top and bottom of the ladder is large. An average Band H home pays £3,189.33 a year more than an average Band A home. Band A on the average works out at £132.89 a month over 12 payments, against £199.33 for Band D.
How much your council changes the bill
The band ratio is the same everywhere in England. What changes is the Band D figure each council area ends up with, and that varies a lot. Westminster has long had one of the lowest council taxes in the country, at £1,049.55 for Band D in 2026-27. Bristol is the highest of the six we hold, at £2,713.68. That's a gap of £1,664.13 for the same band.
The others sit in between: Leeds at £2,283.73, Manchester at £2,312.04, Birmingham at £2,362.90 and Liverpool at £2,673.59. A Band H home in Westminster pays £2,099.10, which is £292.90 less than an average Band D home across England.
Council tax by band in six English councils, 2026-27
Download CSVArea average Band D for each council (MHCLG 2026-27 Table 10, including police, fire, GLA or combined authority and average parish precepts), scaled by band. No discounts. Pounds.
| Bristol | £1,809.12 | £2,110.64 | £2,412.16 | £2,713.68 | £3,316.72 | £3,919.76 | £4,522.80 | £5,427.36 |
| Liverpool | £1,782.39 | £2,079.46 | £2,376.52 | £2,673.59 | £3,267.72 | £3,861.85 | £4,455.98 | £5,347.18 |
| Birmingham | £1,575.27 | £1,837.81 | £2,100.36 | £2,362.90 | £2,887.99 | £3,413.08 | £3,938.17 | £4,725.80 |
| Manchester | £1,541.36 | £1,798.25 | £2,055.15 | £2,312.04 | £2,825.83 | £3,339.61 | £3,853.40 | £4,624.08 |
| Leeds | £1,522.49 | £1,776.23 | £2,029.98 | £2,283.73 | £2,791.23 | £3,298.72 | £3,806.22 | £4,567.46 |
| Westminster | £699.70 | £816.32 | £932.93 | £1,049.55 | £1,282.78 | £1,516.02 | £1,749.25 | £2,099.10 |
The single person discount
If you're the only adult living in your home, you can claim a 25% discount on your bill. It applies whatever your band. On the England average it brings Band A down to £1,196.00, Band D to £1,794.00 and Band H to £3,588.00. On an average Band D bill that's £598.00 a year back in your pocket.
Many people who live alone don't realise they qualify. You claim it from your council, not from the government.
What these figures leave out
These are averages and band arithmetic, not your bill. The calculator doesn't model:
- Councils other than the six it holds. England has around 300 billing authorities, and yours may charge more or less than any of these.
- Your exact parish precept. The council figures spread parish charges across the whole area, so a bill in a parished area can be a little higher and one outside a little lower.
- Council Tax Reduction, the means-tested help each council runs for lower-income households, which can cut a bill sharply or to nothing.
- Other discounts and exemptions, such as for full-time students, some disabled people and certain annexes, and the extra premiums many councils charge on long-term empty homes and second homes.
- Scotland and Wales. Both run their own council tax systems with different bands, valuation dates and ratios. Nothing on this page applies there.
Check your own bill
Find your band with the Valuation Office Agency's postcode search, then put it into the UK council tax calculator to see how it compares across the six councils. If you're working out the cost of moving, add council tax to the one-off costs from the stamp duty calculator, and check what your take-home pay leaves after it with the UK take-home pay calculator.
