Council Tax Bands in North West England 2026/27
Band D rates for all 35 North West billing authorities in 2026/27, with year-on-year change: the ten Greater Manchester boroughs, the five Merseyside boroughs, the twelve Lancashire districts and the region's eight unitary authorities across Cheshire, Cumbria and the Lancashire coast. Greater Manchester bills all include the shared Mayoral precept covering police, fire and the Mayor's office; everywhere else carries its own police and fire precepts. Click any council for the full Band A to H rate table.
Cheapest in the region
Wigan
£2,152.68
Most expensive in the region
Liverpool
£2,673.59
GM Mayoral precept 2026/27
£439.25
Included in all Greater Manchester bills (Band D)
North West Band D Rates 2026/27
Figures are the Band D total for the main billing area of each borough, including all precepts. Parished areas within a borough (for example Haigh and Shevington in Wigan) pay a small additional parish precept on top. Source: MHCLG, ‘Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England: 2026 to 2027’ (accredited official statistics, published 25 March 2026), Tables 9 and 10, Open Government Licence v3.0.
The Greater Manchester Mayoral Precept
Like London's GLA precept, every household in the ten Greater Manchester boroughs (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and Wigan) pays a shared Mayoral precept on top of their borough's own element. For 2026/27 this combined Mayoral precept is £439.25 at Band D, made up of £285.30 for the Mayoral Police and Crime Commissioner and £153.95 for the Mayoral General precept. Of that general precept, £92.20 funds Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue and £61.75 covers the Mayor's general functions, including transport.
The Mayoral precept is set by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, not by your borough, so it is the same wherever you live across Greater Manchester. The variation in total Band D bills between boroughs therefore reflects each council's own spending decisions and the adult social care precept it levies, not the shared Mayoral element.
The Merseyside boroughs sit outside Greater Manchester. Their bills instead include separate precepts for the Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner and the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority, alongside each council's own element. The Lancashire districts, the Cheshire unitaries and the Cumbrian unitaries each carry their own police force and fire authority precepts, which is why the spread across the region is wider than the spread within Greater Manchester alone. The Area column in the table above shows which grouping each authority belongs to.
Why North West Bills Differ
Across the North West billing authorities, Band D bills run from £2,152.68 in Wigan to £2,673.59 in Liverpool, a spread of £520.91 a year at Band D. Because the Greater Manchester boroughs all share the same £439.25 Mayoral precept, the gap between those ten comes almost entirely from each council's own demand and its adult social care precept. Across the wider region the police and fire precepts differ by force area as well.
Salford, the most-searched council in the region, sits at £2,594.45 at Band D for 2026/27, up £142.43 (5.8%) on 2025/26. See the full Salford Band A to H rate table for the monthly figures and band breakdown.
Source: MHCLG, ‘Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England: 2026 to 2027’ (accredited official statistics, published 25 March 2026), Tables 9 and 10, Open Government Licence v3.0.