Where council tax is lowest in England and Wales
Ranked on the average bill households actually pay in 2026-27, not on Band D. Band D is the usual headline and it is a poor way to compare places: the bands were set on 1991 values, so London sits overwhelmingly in the high bands and much of the north in the low ones. On Band D alone, Westminster looks 33% cheaper than it is and Liverpool 24% dearer. Weighting each band's charge by how many homes are actually in it gives the figure people recognise from their own bill. Both are shown.
SW11 (London) tops the list on £1,152, with NP11 (Newport) at number 50 on £1,967. 2,242 postcode areas met the thresholds for this ranking.
| # | Local authority | Average council tax bill | Council tax | Avg price | Crime /1k | Schools Good+ | Liveability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wandsworth e.g. SW11, London | £1,152 | £1,028 | £994,581 | 119.7 | 100.0% | 81/100 |
| 2 | Westminster e.g. NW1, London | £1,397 | £1,050 | £1,657,008 | 257.3 | 100.0% | 77/100 |
| 3 | Stoke-on-Trent e.g. ST1, Stoke-on-Trent | £1,635 | £2,183 | £144,421 | 241.8 | 100.0% | 69/100 |
| 4 | Kingston upon Hull, City of e.g. HU1, Hull | £1,678 | £2,295 | £272,455 | 876.7 | — | 63/100 |
| 5 | Doncaster e.g. DN1, Doncaster | £1,680 | £2,168 | £199,768 | 581.5 | 75.0% | 62/100 |
| 6 | Sunderland e.g. DH4, Houghton le Spring | £1,685 | £2,197 | £164,303 | 81.6 | 90.0% | 77/100 |
| 7 | Wigan e.g. M46, Manchester | £1,725 | £2,153 | £179,318 | — | 100.0% | 77/100 |
| 8 | City of London e.g. EC3N, London | £1,727 | £1,330 | £9,299,868 | 968.0 | — | 42/100 |
| 9 | Sandwell e.g. B67, Smethwick | £1,735 | £2,244 | £182,273 | 83.0 | 100.0% | 83/100 |
| 10 | Newham e.g. E12, London | £1,755 | £1,944 | £434,271 | 87.7 | 100.0% | 83/100 |
| 11 | Lincoln e.g. LN4, Lincoln | £1,762 | £2,323 | £236,071 | 50.5 | 85.0% | 75/100 |
| 12 | Hammersmith and Fulham e.g. NW10, London | £1,768 | £1,520 | £756,532 | 152.2 | 89.7% | 78/100 |
| 13 | Dudley e.g. B63, Halesowen | £1,791 | £2,145 | £207,413 | 64.2 | 91.7% | 78/100 |
| 14 | Manchester e.g. M1, Manchester | £1,804 | £2,312 | £564,857 | — | — | 65/100 |
| 15 | Boston e.g. PE21, Boston | £1,806 | £2,309 | £210,927 | 138.1 | 94.1% | 76/100 |
| 16 | Caerphilly e.g. CF81, Bargoed | £1,826 | £2,083 | £133,531 | 118.3 | — | 66/100 |
| 17 | Wakefield e.g. S71, Barnsley | £1,847 | £2,297 | £160,088 | 131.6 | 88.2% | 72/100 |
| 18 | South Tyneside e.g. NE31, Hebburn | £1,849 | £2,434 | £172,310 | 75.8 | 90.0% | 82/100 |
| 19 | Rotherham e.g. S13, Sheffield | £1,876 | £2,382 | £163,299 | 113.4 | 90.0% | 82/100 |
| 20 | East Lindsey e.g. LN11, Louth | £1,880 | £2,276 | £243,201 | 86.5 | 94.1% | 75/100 |
| 21 | Portsmouth e.g. PO1, Portsmouth | £1,887 | £2,292 | £349,035 | 218.1 | 100.0% | 74/100 |
| 22 | Peterborough e.g. PE1, Peterborough | £1,892 | £2,293 | £256,308 | 199.1 | 80.0% | 77/100 |
| 23 | Rhondda Cynon Taf e.g. CF35, Bridgend | £1,897 | £2,289 | £230,815 | 60.7 | — | 78/100 |
| 24 | North Lincolnshire e.g. DN10, Doncaster | £1,902 | £2,348 | £271,767 | 62.6 | 100.0% | 63/100 |
| 25 | Tower Hamlets e.g. E14, London | £1,902 | £1,838 | £866,175 | 140.9 | 92.3% | 78/100 |
| 26 | Southwark e.g. SE1, London | £1,907 | £1,967 | £1,357,555 | 305.1 | 90.9% | 75/100 |
| 27 | Blaenau Gwent e.g. NP13, Abertillery | £1,912 | £2,531 | £100,985 | 128.4 | — | 58/100 |
| 28 | Knowsley e.g. L10, Liverpool | £1,913 | £2,488 | £155,535 | 84.5 | 80.0% | 73/100 |
| 29 | Erewash e.g. DE72, Derby | £1,915 | £2,361 | £283,554 | 53.5 | 77.8% | 68/100 |
| 30 | Leicester e.g. LE1, Leicester | £1,917 | £2,529 | £461,129 | 535.9 | — | 50/100 |
| 31 | Halton e.g. L24, Liverpool | £1,921 | £2,367 | £276,589 | 128.2 | 60.0% | 61/100 |
| 32 | Tamworth e.g. B77, Tamworth | £1,923 | £2,301 | £238,351 | 68.1 | 83.3% | 80/100 |
| 33 | Tameside e.g. M11, Manchester | £1,923 | £2,447 | £171,205 | — | 90.9% | 77/100 |
| 34 | Telford and Wrekin e.g. TF1, Telford | £1,925 | £2,256 | £216,523 | 83.8 | 88.9% | 78/100 |
| 35 | Southampton e.g. SO14, Southampton | £1,927 | £2,381 | £368,430 | 236.7 | 66.7% | 67/100 |
| 36 | Blackburn with Darwen e.g. BB1, Blackburn | £1,929 | £2,455 | £208,014 | 104.8 | 90.0% | 77/100 |
| 37 | Hackney e.g. E1, London | £1,930 | £2,060 | £1,038,792 | 195.1 | 96.2% | 72/100 |
| 38 | Bolton e.g. BL1, Bolton | £1,931 | £2,400 | £198,308 | — | 92.0% | 82/100 |
| 39 | Leeds e.g. BD10, Bradford | £1,932 | £2,284 | £199,917 | 123.6 | 77.8% | 77/100 |
| 40 | Barking and Dagenham e.g. IG11, Barking | £1,937 | £2,199 | £445,031 | 148.9 | 100.0% | 83/100 |
| 41 | North East Lincolnshire e.g. DN31, Grimsby | £1,939 | £2,484 | £107,155 | 405.8 | 100.0% | 60/100 |
| 42 | St. Helens e.g. L34, Prescot | £1,939 | £2,403 | £251,166 | 135.7 | 66.7% | 66/100 |
| 43 | Great Yarmouth e.g. NR13, Norwich | £1,939 | £2,414 | £343,840 | 44.4 | 100.0% | 69/100 |
| 44 | Burnley e.g. BB11, Burnley | £1,954 | £2,549 | £112,611 | 248.0 | 85.7% | 76/100 |
| 45 | Birmingham e.g. B1, Birmingham | £1,959 | £2,363 | £368,127 | 321.3 | — | 56/100 |
| 46 | North Tyneside e.g. NE12, Newcastle upon Tyne | £1,962 | £2,462 | £242,714 | 70.5 | 85.7% | 73/100 |
| 47 | Blackpool e.g. FY1, Blackpool | £1,965 | £2,513 | £125,986 | 401.5 | 100.0% | 68/100 |
| 48 | Cannock Chase e.g. WS11, Cannock | £1,965 | £2,376 | £230,988 | 99.4 | 78.6% | 79/100 |
| 49 | Bradford e.g. BD1, Bradford | £1,967 | £2,361 | £181,872 | 792.8 | — | 56/100 |
| 50 | Torfaen e.g. NP11, Newport | £1,967 | £2,156 | £164,299 | 100.3 | — | 70/100 |
How this ranking is built
Every figure is calculated from official data by postcode area — the outward code, the part of a postcode before the space. Sold prices are what buyers actually paid, as registered with HM Land Registry. Crime is street-level police data matched to postcode areas through the neighbourhoods inside them. School ratings are current Ofsted grades across 26,824 schools. Population, tenure and household figures come from the 2021 Census.
Areas with too few sales or residents to rank meaningfully are excluded, as are non-residential ones — business parks, airports and single-company campuses have sold prices but nobody lives in them. Where a figure is unknown the area is left out of that ranking rather than counted as zero. Inner London really does come top, which surprises people: Wandsworth and Westminster have the lowest council tax in England and have done for years, funding services from commercial property and parking income rather than from residents. It does not make London cheap to live in — it has the country's highest house prices and rents — but the council tax bill genuinely is the lowest.