Most Expensive and Cheapest Council Tax 2026/27
All 350 billing authorities in England, Wales and Scotland ranked by Band D council tax for 2026/27, from highest to lowest. English and Welsh figures include the police precept; Scottish figures are the council's own charge, because Scotland has no police or fire precept.
Quick answer
The cheapest council tax in the UK for 2026/27 is Wandsworth Borough Council at £1,020.35 at Band D, and the most expensive is Dorset Council at £2,765.02 - a difference of £1,744.67 a year for an identical Band D home. MHCLG's 2026/27 figures confirm these two as the lowest and highest average Band D of any billing authority in England; they are also the extremes among the 350 councils compared below. English figures are the Band D charge including police, fire and (in London) the GLA precept; Scottish figures are the council's own charge only, so read the ranking as council tax charged, not as the whole cost of living in an area.
10 Most Expensive Councils - Band D 2026/27
| # | Council | Band D 2026/27 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dorset Council | £2,765.02 |
| 2 | Lewes | £2,756.17 |
| 3 | Nottingham City Council | £2,755.39 |
| 4 | Rutland County Council | £2,737.58 |
| 5 | Wealden | £2,728.43 |
| 6 | Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council | £2,715.81 |
| 7 | Bristol City Council | £2,713.68 |
| 8 | West Devon | £2,705.33 |
| 9 | Rother | £2,700.95 |
| 10 | Newark and Sherwood | £2,682.10 |
10 Cheapest Councils - Band D 2026/27
| # | Council | Band D 2026/27 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wandsworth Borough Council | £1,020.35 |
| 2 | Westminster City Council | £1,049.55 |
| 3 | City of London | £1,329.56 |
| 4 | South Lanarkshire Council | £1,468.47 |
| 5 | Shetland Islands | £1,487.90 |
| 6 | Na h-Eileanan Siar | £1,505.50 |
| 7 | London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham | £1,519.51 |
| 8 | North Lanarkshire Council | £1,554.56 |
| 9 | Fife Council | £1,573.70 |
| 10 | Dumfries and Galloway | £1,578.65 |
Looking for a specific area? Browse all councils by region for the full Band A to H rate table.
Cheapest and Most Expensive Council by Region - Band D 2026/27
The lowest and highest Band D bill among the councils in each region for 2026/27. Tap a region for the full regional comparison, or a council for its complete Band A to H table.
| Region | Cheapest (Band D) | Most expensive (Band D) |
|---|---|---|
| London | Wandsworth Borough Council - £1,020.35 | Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames - £2,609.20 |
| North West | Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council - £2,152.68 | Liverpool City Council - £2,673.59 |
| North East | Sunderland City Council - £2,197.14 | Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council - £2,715.81 |
| Yorkshire & Humber | City of Doncaster Council - £2,167.75 | North Yorkshire Council - £2,544.34 |
| West Midlands | Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council - £2,144.84 | Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council - £2,627.48 |
| East Midlands | South Kesteven - £2,260.00 | Nottingham City Council - £2,755.39 |
| East of England | Thurrock Council - £2,254.68 | Huntingdonshire - £2,556.40 |
| South East | Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead - £1,952.62 | Lewes - £2,756.17 |
| South West | Isles of Scilly - £2,047.96 | Dorset Council - £2,765.02 |
| Wales | Cardiff Council - £2,013.18 | Merthyr Tydfil - £2,593.60 |
| Scotland | South Lanarkshire Council - £1,468.47 | Midlothian - £1,816.16 |
English figures are the area Band D total including the county, police, fire and (in London) GLA precepts, excluding parish and town precepts. Welsh figures include the police and community council precepts. Scottish figures are the council's own charge: there is no police or fire precept in Scottish council tax, and Scottish Water and waste water charges are billed on top. Based on the councils tracked in each region, not every authority.
How the ranking is calculated
Each council is ranked by its Band D council tax for 2026/27, taken from that nation's own statutory registry. In England that is the area Band D total: the billing authority's own charge and adult social care precept plus the county, police and fire precepts, and in London the Greater London Authority precept, with parish and town precepts excluded because they vary street by street. In Wales it is the average Band D from the Welsh Government tables, which includes the police precept and, unlike England, the community council precept. In Scotland it is the council's own charge.
That means the three nations are not measuring quite the same thing, and the ranking should be read with that in mind. The largest difference is Scottish: Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service replaced the old regional police and fire boards under the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, and their funding moved out of the local government finance settlement on 1 April 2013, so no Scottish bill has carried a police or fire precept since. Scottish households pay a separate, nationally set Scottish Water and waste water charge on the same bill, which is not council tax and is not included here. The Scottish Government makes the same point in its own comparison of council tax across the UK nations: full coherence is not possible, and caution should be taken when comparing them.
Band D is the standard reference band. Every other band is charged as a fixed proportion of it, and a home in Band A pays roughly two-thirds of the Band D figure. At the top of the scale that proportion is not the same across Britain: a Band H home pays double the Band D figure in England and Wales, but 882/360 of it (about 2.45 times) in Scotland, because the Council Tax (Substitution of Proportion) (Scotland) Order 2016 reset bands E to H from April 2017. Bands A to D use the same proportion in all three nations, which is why this table ranks councils at Band D. A Scottish council therefore sits higher in a Band E to H ranking than its Band D position here implies.
This page ranks all 350 billing authorities in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland is excluded because it charges domestic rates rather than council tax.
Sources: MHCLG, 'Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England: 2026 to 2027' (25 March 2026); Welsh Government, 'Council Tax levels: April 2026 to March 2027' (24 March 2026); Scottish Government, 'Council Tax Datasets: Council Tax by band 2026-27' (31 March 2026). Cross-nation comparability and the central funding of Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service from 1 April 2013: Scottish Government, 'Council Tax Rates: Comparing Scotland to other UK nations' and 'Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics'. All Open Government Licence v3.0.