Sold prices & market data
The council tax lottery: where bills are biggest compared with what homes are worth
6 min read · Recomputed from HM Land Registry data and 2026-27 council tax rates
Council tax is the one housing cost that has almost nothing to do with what your home is worth today. Bands are still based on 1991 valuations, and each council sets its own rates — so two households in identical Band D homes can pay wildly different bills. Measure the bill against what homes actually sell for, and the unfairness gets a number: across 1,924 English postcode districts, the gap between the heaviest and lightest burden is 59x.
Heaviest burden
3.42%/yr
TS1, Middlesbrough
Lightest burden
0.06%/yr
SW1X, London
The gap
59x
across 1,924 districts
In TS1 Middlesbrough, a Band D household pays £2,549 a year on a median home worth £74,500 — the equivalent of 3.4% of the home's entire value, every year. In Knightsbridge's SW1X, the same band costs £1,248 against a £2.15M median — 0.06%. Over a decade, the TS1 household pays away roughly a third of their home's value in council tax; the Knightsbridge one, half of one percent.
Where council tax bites hardest
The heaviest burdens cluster tightly: County Durham, Teesside, and Lincolnshire coastal towns — places where Band D rates are among England's highest while home values are among its lowest. Click any district for its full local picture.
| # | District | Tax vs value | Band D | Median home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TS1Middlesbrough | 3.42%/yr | £2,549 | £74,500 |
| 2 | DL4Shildon | 3.24%/yr | £2,558 | £79,000 |
| 3 | DN31Grimsby | 3.16%/yr | £2,484 | £78,500 |
| 4 | SR8Peterlee | 2.91%/yr | £2,622 | £89,975 |
| 5 | TS29Trimdon Station | 2.76%/yr | £2,622 | £95,000 |
| 6 | TS3Middlesbrough | 2.68%/yr | £2,547 | £95,000 |
| 7 | DN32Grimsby | 2.48%/yr | £2,484 | £100,000 |
| 8 | DL17Ferryhill | 2.41%/yr | £2,622 | £108,975 |
| 9 | TS24Hartlepool | 2.40%/yr | £2,560 | £106,500 |
| 10 | FY1Blackpool | 2.39%/yr | £2,513 | £105,000 |
| 11 | S1Sheffield | 2.34%/yr | £2,510 | £107,500 |
| 12 | NE17Newcastle upon Tyne | 2.30%/yr | £2,645 | £115,000 |
| 13 | S4Sheffield | 2.28%/yr | £2,510 | £110,000 |
| 14 | DH9Stanley | 2.18%/yr | £2,669 | £122,500 |
| 15 | LA18Millom | 2.09%/yr | £2,511 | £120,000 |
| 16 | L4Liverpool | 2.06%/yr | £2,674 | £130,000 |
| 17 | DL14Bishop Auckland | 2.04%/yr | £2,622 | £128,250 |
| 18 | S14Sheffield | 2.02%/yr | £2,510 | £124,250 |
| 19 | BD3Bradford | 2.02%/yr | £2,322 | £115,000 |
| 20 | DH6Durham | 2.02%/yr | £2,622 | £130,000 |
…and where it's barely noticeable
Every one of the lightest-burden districts is in central or south-west London, where Westminster and Wandsworth set some of the country's lowest rates — on some of its most valuable homes.
| # | District | Tax vs value | Band D | Median home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SW1XLondon | 0.06%/yr | £1,248 | £2.15M |
| 2 | W1HLondon | 0.09%/yr | £1,050 | £1.16M |
| 3 | SW7London | 0.10%/yr | £1,358 | £1.39M |
| 4 | SW1WLondon | 0.10%/yr | £1,248 | £1.27M |
| 5 | W8London | 0.11%/yr | £1,667 | £1.45M |
| 6 | SW3London | 0.13%/yr | £1,588 | £1.20M |
| 7 | SW11London | 0.14%/yr | £1,028 | £757,500 |
| 8 | W11London | 0.14%/yr | £1,594 | £1.13M |
| 9 | SW1PLondon | 0.15%/yr | £1,039 | £700,000 |
| 10 | SW1VLondon | 0.16%/yr | £1,039 | £650,000 |
| 11 | SW10London | 0.18%/yr | £1,593 | £885,000 |
| 12 | SW6London | 0.19%/yr | £1,520 | £796,250 |
| 13 | EC2YLondon | 0.20%/yr | £1,719 | £880,000 |
| 14 | SW5London | 0.20%/yr | £1,667 | £837,000 |
| 15 | SW13London | 0.21%/yr | £2,486 | £1.20M |
| 16 | NW8London | 0.21%/yr | £1,831 | £877,500 |
| 17 | W2London | 0.21%/yr | £1,618 | £775,000 |
| 18 | NW3London | 0.22%/yr | £2,170 | £980,000 |
| 19 | NW11London | 0.22%/yr | £2,133 | £954,000 |
| 20 | SW12London | 0.22%/yr | £1,538 | £687,500 |
Why the lottery exists
Three things compound: bands are frozen at 1991 relative values, so thirty years of uneven price growth never changed anyone's band; councils in areas with weaker tax bases and higher service demand must set higher rates; and the band system caps what the most expensive homes can pay — a £20m mansion sits at most three bands above a mid-terrace. The result is a tax that is, in effect, steeply regressive against home value.
For movers the practical takeaway is simpler: council tax varies enough between neighbouring areas to be worth checking before you choose where to live — the same Band D home can cost £1,500+ a year more one council over.
Methodology
- Tax: 2026-27 Band D rates by billing authority (MHCLG). Where a district spans multiple authorities we average them.
- Values: median sold price over the trailing 12 months, HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (standard residential sales). Districts needed at least 50 recent sales; 1,924 qualified. England only (Wales and Scotland set rates differently).
- Caveat: Band D is the standard comparator, not what every household pays — cheaper areas have more homes in bands A–C, which pay less than Band D (though the burden-vs-value gap remains).
This page recomputes automatically as new data is imported. Data licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Related guides