Free tool
What’s the council tax around there?
Type a postcode and see which council bills it, what every band pays this year, and how that compares with the rest of England. No account, no email.
How a council tax bill is put together
Every home in England sits in a band from A to H, fixed by the Valuation Office Agency according to what the property was worth in 1991. The council then sets one number each year, the Band D charge, and every other band pays a fixed fraction or multiple of it, so a Band A home pays two thirds of whatever Band D is and a Band H home pays double.
The bill that lands on the doormat is more than the council’s own charge, because the police precept, the fire precept and in some places a county share are collected on top of it. The figures on this page are that full amount rather than the headline a council quotes about itself, which can differ by hundreds of pounds a year.
Why it matters when you're moving
Council tax is one of the few housing costs that changes purely because of where the property is. Two identical houses a mile apart, either side of a boundary, can carry bills a few hundred pounds a year apart forever, and unlike energy or broadband there is nothing you can switch or renegotiate about it.
Inside The First Move this same lookup runs automatically for every property you track, so the score already reflects the right council. This page is the lookup on its own, free, for anyone weighing up an area.
Where the data comes from
The rates are the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s own published figures for all 296 English billing authorities in the 2026/27 council tax year, retrieved 2026-07-14. We use the average Band D figure for each area including every precept. The postcode is matched to its council through the Office for National Statistics coding, not by guessing from the address.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The First Move is not an official government service and is not connected to MHCLG, the VOA, or any council.
Built by The First Move, the tool that works out what a home actually costs each month once you own it. For the wider picture, see what it costs to live in every English council area, work out your stamp duty, check a home’s EPC rating, or try the live demo.