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.
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 here are that full amount rather than the headline a council quotes about itself.
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.
Where the data comes from
The rates are MHCLG’s own published figures for all 296 English billing authorities in the 2026/27 council tax year, retrieved 2026-09-02. The postcode is matched to its council through 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.