Birmingham Council Tax 2026

How to read this stock pattern

Band D is a poor description of the largest group in Birmingham's housing stock. The dominant group is Band A, where the statutory charge is two-thirds of the Band D rate, while the reference band describes a different part of the valuation list. The £1,958.84 stock-weighted figure is therefore the more representative area-level comparison. It does not predict an individual bill, because discounts, exemptions and the property's actual valuation band still determine liability.

This is a two-band centre rather than a single-band market. Bands A and B together contain 63.7% of dwellings, so neither band should be presented as a complete account of the area. The stock-weighted result combines both groups and the smaller tails into one comparable measure. The table shows where that mean comes from and prevents the distribution being flattened into an overconfident "typical property" claim.

Birmingham falls in the lower quarter of the West Midlands stock-weighted ordering, below the regional median of £2,132.00. Its Band D figure may sit elsewhere in the national table, but applying the local stock mix produces a cheaper regional comparison. That difference is precisely why both measures are shown. Neither replaces an address-level bill, which depends on the property's valuation band and any applicable reductions.

Closest housing-stock shape: Fenland

Fenland is an exceptionally close stock-shape match for Birmingham: moving 2.3% of dwellings between valuation bands would make the two published distributions align. That is a stricter comparison than sharing a modal band, because all published bands contribute to the distance.

Four largest band differences

• The largest separation appears in the upper part of the ladder at Band G. Birmingham places 1.3% of dwellings there versus 0.4% for Fenland, giving this profile the heavier upper-band tail at that point.
• A smaller distinction is lower on the ladder at Band B: Birmingham has 28.4% of dwellings there, against 27.6% in Fenland. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
• A smaller distinction is at reference Band D: its share is 9.6% in Birmingham and 10.4% in Fenland. The familiar benchmark represents a larger slice of the peer's housing stock.
• A smaller distinction sits at lower Band A, where Fenland holds 36.1% of its stock and Birmingham holds 35.3%. The peer is more bottom-weighted at this rung of the valuation list.

How the wider profile compares

Show every band direction

• Band A leans toward Fenland
• Band B leans toward Birmingham
• Band C is closely balanced
• Band D leans toward Fenland
• Band E is closely balanced
• Band F is closely balanced
• Band G leans toward Birmingham
• Band H is closely balanced

This sequence is read from the lowest published band to the highest.

Other close England matches for Birmingham: Hastings (3.8% redistribution distance); Lancaster (4.0% redistribution distance); Plymouth (4.6% redistribution distance); Peterborough (5.0% redistribution distance). Ranked across every published band in the England valuation system, this shortlist shows whether Fenland stands alone or sits in a cluster of similarly shaped authorities.