How we source council tax data

Sources, by data slice

• England & Wales bands.Sourced from the Valuation Office Agency record at gov.uk/council-tax-bands. The VOA is the statutory body responsible for setting and maintaining bands in England and Wales.
• Scotland bands.Sourced from the Scottish Assessors Association portal at saa.gov.uk. The SAA represents Scottish Assessors who are statutorily responsible for council tax bands in Scotland.
• 2026/27 charges.Compiled from local authority sources plus the gov.uk, gov.wales and gov.scot statistical releases (Tables 1-9 from DLUHC's annual Council Tax Levels publication). The dataset currently covers 101 councils across England, Wales, and Scotland, prioritising the largest authorities by population first. 92 are verified against the council's published 2026/27 schedule, 8 are flagged approximate, 1 pending. The per-council page shows its individual verification status and last-verified date. Council pages should be cross-checked with your council's official bill before budgeting on a specific figure.
• Statutory exemptions and discounts.Single-person 25%, student exemption, disability band reduction and other adjustments are taken from gov.uk/council-tax statutory guidance.

Refresh discipline

Charges for 2026/27 are compiled from local authority sources. We are working through council-by-council re-verification against each authority's published 2026/27 schedule, with a primary-source URL captured per council. Bands change rarely (re-band requests are individual and handled by VOA / SAA), so the band lookup tracks the authoritative record continuously rather than on a fixed cycle.

Where a council issues an in-year amendment to charges, the relevant page is updated to match. Each council page shows a last-verified date and links to the council's official site. Always cross-check with your council's bill before budgeting on a specific figure.

What we do not publish

• Aggregated charges as a substitute for the per-council figure. National Band D averages (England £2,392, Wales £2,283 for 2026/27, from DLUHC and gov.wales) are shown on the homepage for context, but council tax varies by hundreds of pounds between authorities for the same band. The budget-relevant figure is your specific council's charge, not the national mean.
• Predictions of future charges. Council tax is set annually by each authority. We do not publish forecasts beyond the current 2026/27 schedule.
• Council-tax-rebate-company sales pitches. The challenge process is described editorially based on VOA / SAA published guidance. We do not refer readers to paid challenge services and do not earn commission on rebate-company referrals.
• Personal data. The postcode lookup runs entirely in your browser. The postcode you enter is not transmitted, logged, or stored. Standard analytics (Google Analytics, page-view-level only) are used.

Editorial position

This site is operated by Digital Signet, an independent AI-development studio. We do not set bands, do not collect council tax, do not act for any local authority, and do not accept paid placements from the VOA, the Scottish Assessors Association, councils, or council-tax-rebate companies. See /about for the operator and the wider network.

Editorial direction is set by Digital Signet's editor. Drafts are produced via Digital Signet's autonomous AI development methodology and reviewed against the editorial framework before publication.

Contact

For corrections, methodology questions, or scenarios that don't fit cleanly: oliver@digitalsignet.com.

For billing questions, contact your local authority directly. This site is not legal or financial advice; it is a reference for budgeting and sanity-checking.