Blaenau Gwent Council Tax 2026
Wales · 33,250 domestic properties
According to Welsh Government / StatsWales, Council Tax levels 2026-27, Blaenau Gwent's Band D Council Tax is £2,531.26 for 2026-27, the 76th highest of 350 UK billing authorities (higher than 78% of them) and 8% above the UK average of £2,337.00. Nearest published Band D rates sit with North Warwickshire, Epsom & Ewell, Leicester City, Shropshire, then Buckinghamshire, Spelthorne. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Rhondda Cynon Taf, Neath Port Talbot, Caerphilly, Swansea.
How we calculate this rank & percentile
We compare every UK billing authority with a published 2026-27 Band D rate (350 in total). Rank is one plus the number with a higher charge, so equal charges share a rank. Percentile is round(authorities with a lower charge ÷ 350 × 100). The UK average is the simple mean of every council's Band D rate in our coverage set. Because the rank spans all three nations, it compares what each authority charges, not what each charge buys. Wales revalued its housing stock to 2003 values and uses nine bands, A to I, rather than the eight used in England and Scotland. A Welsh Band D property therefore sits at a different point in the housing stock than an English Band D one, and the rank should be read as a charge comparison only. Nearest published Band D rates sit with North Warwickshire, Epsom & Ewell, Leicester City, Shropshire, then Buckinghamshire, Spelthorne. See our methodology page for the full source-to-figure lineage.
- £2,531.26
- Band D charge · 2026 statutory
- Above the UK average
- +4.23%
- year-on-year vs £2,428.43
- Lower-quarter rise
- +8.3%
- vs UK avg £2,337.00
- £5,906.27
- Band I · 21/9 of Band D
Nearest published Band D rates sit with North Warwickshire, Epsom & Ewell, Leicester City, Shropshire, then Buckinghamshire, Spelthorne. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Rhondda Cynon Taf, Neath Port Talbot, Caerphilly, Swansea. Open North Warwickshire for the closest published Band D on the same vintage.
Blaenau Gwent · year-on-year Band D
What changed for Blaenau Gwent
Blaenau Gwent's Band D Council Tax rose from £2,428.43 (2025-26) to £2,531.26 (2026-27). Among 350 billing authorities by percentage rise, it ranks 280.
How to read this Band D change
This is a change in the published Band D charge, not advice about household bills. Precepts, discounts, and banding decide the amount you pay.
See UK year-on-year changesBlaenau Gwent bands A-I schedule
Per-band charge 2026
Blaenau Gwent's nearest Band D charges nationwide
Blaenau Gwent is 76th of 350 on the national Band D list at £2,531.26. Nearest published Band D rates sit with North Warwickshire, Epsom & Ewell, Leicester City, Shropshire, then Buckinghamshire, Spelthorne. The six closest published 2026-27 rates, led by North Warwickshire, ignore geography on purpose, so a map neighbour is not mistaken for a charge twin. Read the difference column as a pound gap; cross-check the Wales ranking further down when you care about local neighbours, and the stock-weighted average when you care what most of Blaenau Gwent's 33,250 dwellings actually pay. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Rhondda Cynon Taf, Neath Port Talbot, Caerphilly, Swansea.
| Council | Band D | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| North Warwickshire | £2,532.10 | +£0.84 |
| Epsom & Ewell | £2,530.84 | −£0.42 |
| Leicester City | £2,528.75 | −£2.51 |
| Shropshire | £2,528.18 | −£3.08 |
| Buckinghamshire | £2,526.58 | −£4.68 |
| Spelthorne | £2,526.44 | −£4.82 |
Band A–I charge table (2026/2027)
| Band | Annual Charge | Monthly | Sole occupant (−25%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,687.51 | £168.75 | £1,265.63 |
| B | £1,968.76 | £196.88 | £1,476.57 |
| C | £2,250.01 | £225.00 | £1,687.51 |
| D | £2,531.26 | £253.13 | £1,898.45 |
| E | £3,093.76 | £309.38 | £2,320.32 |
| F | £3,656.26 | £365.63 | £2,742.20 |
| G | £4,218.77 | £421.88 | £3,164.08 |
| H | £5,062.52 | £506.25 | £3,796.89 |
| I | £5,906.27 | £590.63 | £4,429.70 |
Wales 2003 valuation ranges (Band A–I)
- Band A: Up to £44,000 (2003 valuation)
- Band B: £44,001 to £65,000
- Band C: £65,001 to £91,000
- Band D: £91,001 to £123,000 (reference band)
- Band E: £123,001 to £162,000
- Band F: £162,001 to £223,000
- Band G: £223,001 to £324,000
- Band H: £324,001 to £424,000
- Band I: Over £424,000
Source: Welsh Government / StatsWales, Council Tax levels 2026-27 (area Band D) + statutory Wales band ratios documented in our methodology. Monthly figure is the annual charge / 10 (most councils use 10 monthly instalments). The sole-occupant column applies the statutory 25% single-person discount, payable when only one adult lives in the property.
What Blaenau Gwent's 33,250 properties actually pay
Most homes in Blaenau Gwent sit in Band A, the bottom of the valuation list: 19,210 of 33,250 dwellings (57.8%). Band A is charged at two-thirds of the Band D rate, so the headline figure above describes a property type that is in the minority here. More than half of those homes — 57.8% — sit in that single band, an unusually concentrated stock. 90.5% of dwellings on the Wales valuation list here are banded below D.
Weighting each band's statutory charge by the number of properties in it gives a stock-weighted average of £1,914.79 per dwelling, £616.47 (24.4%) below the £2,531.26 Band D headline, because most of the stock sits in bands charged at less than the Band D rate. On that measure Blaenau Gwent is 286th of 318 authorities with published stock counts, against a £2,269.00 average. That places Blaenau Gwent 20th of the 22 billing authorities in Wales, below the regional median of £2,258.00.
How to read this stock pattern
Band D is a poor description of the largest group in Blaenau Gwent'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 £1,914.79 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.
The distribution is unusually concentrated: one band alone contains 57.8% of all published dwellings. That gives the modal-band comparison real descriptive weight and makes the gap between its charge and Band D easier to interpret. It also means the statutory charge shown for that band applies to the largest share of the local stock before discounts or exemptions. The table remains necessary because the other 7 bands describe the minority of properties that the headline cannot represent.
Blaenau Gwent falls in the lower quarter of the Wales stock-weighted ordering, below the regional median of £2,258.00. 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: Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil is the nearest available full-distribution peer for Blaenau Gwent, although the match is not tight. Aligning the two published profiles would require 7.0% of dwellings to move between valuation bands. Even the closest council therefore has a materially different housing-stock shape.
Four largest band differences
- The largest separation is lower on the ladder at Band A: Blaenau Gwent has 57.8% of dwellings there, against 51.2% in Merthyr Tydfil. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
- Another material separation is an upper-band difference at Band E. Merthyr Tydfil records 5.6% of dwellings there, compared with 2.7% in Blaenau Gwent, so the peer carries more of its stock at that higher rung.
- Another material separation is at reference Band D: its share is 5.5% in Blaenau Gwent and 8.0% in Merthyr Tydfil. The familiar benchmark represents a larger slice of the peer's housing stock.
- A smaller distinction is an upper-band difference at Band F. Merthyr Tydfil records 2.1% of dwellings there, compared with 1.1% in Blaenau Gwent, so the peer carries more of its stock at that higher rung.
How the wider profile compares
Blaenau Gwent has the stronger combined lower-band tilt: Bands A to C account for 6.9% more of its stock than they do in Merthyr Tydfil. The nearest match still leaves that bottom-of-ladder difference visible.
Merthyr Tydfil carries the heavier upper tail across Bands E and above, exceeding Blaenau Gwent's combined share there by 4.4%. Total-variation distance counts those absolute band gaps without assuming they offset the lower-band pattern.
Both profiles peak in Band A, so the peer match agrees on the most common valuation group as well as the full-distribution distance. The band-by-band gaps above show why a shared mode does not make the profiles interchangeable.
Band I is the most stable point in the comparison, with shares of 0.1% and 0.0%. Reading that near-match beside the largest gaps prevents the peer label from hiding where the two published distributions actually agree.
Show every band direction
- Band A leans toward Blaenau Gwent
- Band B is closely balanced
- Band C is closely balanced
- Band D leans toward Merthyr Tydfil
- Band E leans toward Merthyr Tydfil
- Band F leans toward Merthyr Tydfil
- Band G is closely balanced
- Band I is closely balanced
This sequence is read from the lowest published band to the highest.
Other close Wales matches for Blaenau Gwent: Rhondda Cynon Taf (17.5% redistribution distance); Neath Port Talbot (37.2% redistribution distance); Caerphilly (38.6% redistribution distance); Swansea (42.5% redistribution distance). Ranked across every published band in the Wales valuation system, this shortlist shows whether Merthyr Tydfil stands alone or sits in a cluster of similarly shaped authorities.
| Band | Properties | Share of stock | Annual charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 19,210 | 57.8% | £1,687.51 |
| B | 8,160 | 24.5% | £1,968.76 |
| C | 2,730 | 8.2% | £2,250.01 |
| D | 1,820 | 5.5% | £2,531.26 |
| E | 900 | 2.7% | £3,093.76 |
| F | 350 | 1.1% | £3,656.26 |
| G | 60 | 0.2% | £4,218.77 |
| I | 20 | 0.1% | £5,906.27 |
Property-stock source, rounding and weighting notes
Property counts: VOA, Council Tax: stock of properties 2025 (Table CTSOP1.0_SUP, as at 9 September 2025), Open Government Licence v3.0. Counts are published rounded to the nearest 10, so shares are approximate and may not sum to exactly 100%. The stock-weighted average is our calculation: each band's 2026/2027 charge multiplied by its property count, divided by the total. It is a mean across the whole stock, not a bill any individual household receives.
Authorities charging a similar average across their stock
These are the closest authorities to Blaenau Gwent on the stock-weighted measure, which is a different ordering from the Band D neighbours above because it accounts for how each area's properties are banded.
- Halton£1,921.77
- Leicester City£1,917.75
- Knowsley£1,915.02
- Erewash£1,914.11
- Southwark£1,907.23
Blaenau Gwent's nearest year-on-year movers
Blaenau Gwent moved Band D from £2,428.43 to £2,531.26 (+4.23%, competition rank 280th of 350). The closest published movements sit with Sevenoaks, South Staffordshire, Brentwood.
- Sevenoaks4.25%
- South Staffordshire4.24%
- Brentwood4.22%
- Chelmsford4.22%
- Tunbridge Wells4.22%
- Rochford4.21%
How Blaenau Gwent compares in Wales
Among the 22 billing authorities in Wales, Blaenau Gwent's 2026-27 Band D charge of £2,531.26 ranks 3rd of 22, higher than 86% of them (£205.26 above the Wales average of £2,326.00). Its nearest-charged neighbours in the region:
Regional high-charge outlier: this authority sits in the costliest fifth of Wales.
| Region rank | Council | Band D 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Merthyr Tydfil | £2,593.60 |
| 2nd | Neath Port Talbot | £2,541.39 |
| 3rd | Blaenau Gwent | £2,531.26 |
| 4th | Bridgend | £2,477.99 |
| 5th | Conwy | £2,472.82 |
Regional rank out of 22 Wales billing authorities by 2026-27 Band D charge (1 = dearest). See the full UK ranking or the complete directory.
Questions answered from Blaenau Gwent's data
These answers use Blaenau Gwent's £2,531.26 Band D rate, the Wales statutory multipliers, and the VOA stock mix (modal Band A, 90.5% below D).
Is Blaenau Gwent Council Tax above the UK average?
Blaenau Gwent's 2026-27 Band D rate is £2,531.26, 8.3% above the UK average of £2,337.00. It has competition rank 76th of 350, with equal charges sharing a rank. Nearest published Band D rates sit with North Warwickshire, Epsom & Ewell, Leicester City, Shropshire, then Buckinghamshire, Spelthorne.
Which councils have charges closest to Blaenau Gwent?
The closest published Band D rates are North Warwickshire (£2,532.10), Epsom & Ewell (£2,530.84), Leicester City (£2,528.75), Shropshire (£2,528.18), Buckinghamshire (£2,526.58), Spelthorne (£2,526.44). The comparison table above shows the six nearest authorities and the exact difference from Blaenau Gwent.
What is the average Council Tax bill in Blaenau Gwent?
Across Blaenau Gwent's 33,250 domestic properties, the stock-weighted average charge is £1,914.79 for 2026-27. That is £616.47 below the £2,531.26 Band D rate, because the most common band here is Band A (57.8% of the stock) and 90.5% of dwellings are banded below D. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Rhondda Cynon Taf, Neath Port Talbot, Caerphilly, Swansea. Property counts are from the VOA 2025 stock release; the weighting is our calculation.
How did Blaenau Gwent Council Tax change for 2026-27?
Band D moved from £2,428.43 to £2,531.26, a 4.23% rise. Its competition rank by annual increase is 280th of 350; the closest movements include Sevenoaks, South Staffordshire, Brentwood.
Advice boundary for Blaenau Gwent
They are not personalised advice - expand a question for the figure that matches the tables above for the 2026-27 vintage, then follow the methodology or gov.uk links for a binding bill on a specific property.
Council Tax figure, precept and liability disclaimer
Council Tax charges shown on this page are derived from the published Wales Band D dataset and statutory Wales band ratios. They are intended as informational guidance, not as a personalised tax statement or legal advice. Your actual bill depends on your property's assigned band and on any discounts or exemptions that apply to your household. Blaenau Gwent's overall average Band D (bands A to I) combines the council charge with police and average community council precepts. Nearest published Band D rates sit with North Warwickshire, Epsom & Ewell, Leicester City, Shropshire, then Buckinghamshire, Spelthorne. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Rhondda Cynon Taf, Neath Port Talbot, Caerphilly, Swansea. For a binding figure consult your Blaenau Gwent Council Tax bill or the official gov.uk Council Tax service. Figures published in 2026 reflect the 2026/2027 financial year only.
UK tools, directories and band challenge
- Compare councils side-by-side →
- Browse all UK councils →
- Band D national rollup →
- Challenge your band guide →
Charges shown for Blaenau Gwent are the overall average Band D across bands A to I, including police and community precepts. Nearest published Band D rates sit with North Warwickshire, Epsom & Ewell, Leicester City, Shropshire, then Buckinghamshire, Spelthorne.