Bradford Council Tax 2026
Yorkshire and The Humber, England · 224,170 domestic properties
According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, Bradford's Band D Council Tax is £2,360.73 for 2026-27, the 211th highest of 350 UK billing authorities (higher than 40% of them) and 1% above the UK average of £2,337.00. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Bexley, Rochford, Birmingham, Erewash, then Winchester, Gloucester. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Newcastle-under-Lyme, Leeds, St Helens, Redcar & Cleveland.
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. English bands rest on 1991 property values in eight bands, A to H, while Scotland uses its own 1991 thresholds and Wales revalued to 2003 values with a ninth band. An English Band D home is therefore not the same property profile as a Welsh or Scottish one. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Bexley, Rochford, Birmingham, Erewash, then Winchester, Gloucester. See our methodology page for the full source-to-figure lineage.
- £2,360.73
- Band D charge · 2026 statutory
- Near the UK average
- +5.10%
- year-on-year vs £2,246.15
- Middle-half rise
- +1.0%
- vs UK avg £2,337.00
- £4,721.46
- Band H · 18/9 of Band D
Nearest published Band D rates sit with Bexley, Rochford, Birmingham, Erewash, then Winchester, Gloucester. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Newcastle-under-Lyme, Leeds, St Helens, Redcar & Cleveland. Open Bexley for the closest published Band D on the same vintage.
Bradford · year-on-year Band D
What changed for Bradford
Bradford's Band D Council Tax rose from £2,246.15 (2025-26) to £2,360.73 (2026-27). Among 350 billing authorities by percentage rise, it ranks 117.
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 changesBradford bands A-H schedule
Per-band charge 2026
Bradford's nearest Band D charges nationwide
Bradford is 211th of 350 on the national Band D list at £2,360.73. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Bexley, Rochford, Birmingham, Erewash, then Winchester, Gloucester. The six closest published 2026-27 rates, led by Bexley, 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 Yorkshire and The Humber ranking further down when you care about local neighbours, and the stock-weighted average when you care what most of Bradford's 224,170 dwellings actually pay. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Newcastle-under-Lyme, Leeds, St Helens, Redcar & Cleveland.
| Council | Band D | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Bexley | £2,366.36 | +£5.63 |
| Rochford | £2,363.48 | +£2.75 |
| Birmingham | £2,362.90 | +£2.17 |
| Erewash | £2,360.64 | −£0.09 |
| Winchester | £2,359.76 | −£0.97 |
| Gloucester | £2,355.84 | −£4.89 |
Band A–H charge table (2026/2027)
| Band | Annual Charge | Monthly | Sole occupant (−25%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,573.82 | £157.38 | £1,180.37 |
| B | £1,836.12 | £183.61 | £1,377.09 |
| C | £2,098.43 | £209.84 | £1,573.82 |
| D | £2,360.73 | £236.07 | £1,770.55 |
| E | £2,885.34 | £288.53 | £2,164.01 |
| F | £3,409.94 | £340.99 | £2,557.46 |
| G | £3,934.55 | £393.46 | £2,950.91 |
| H | £4,721.46 | £472.15 | £3,541.10 |
England 1991 valuation ranges (Band A–H)
- Band A: Up to £40,000 (1991 valuation)
- Band B: £40,001 to £52,000
- Band C: £52,001 to £68,000
- Band D: £68,001 to £88,000 (reference band)
- Band E: £88,001 to £120,000
- Band F: £120,001 to £160,000
- Band G: £160,001 to £320,000
- Band H: Over £320,000
Source: MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27 (area Band D) + statutory England 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 Bradford's 224,170 properties actually pay
Most homes in Bradford sit in Band A, the bottom of the valuation list: 92,740 of 224,170 dwellings (41.4%). 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. Bands A and B between them account for 62.3% of the stock. 80.9% of dwellings on the England 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 £1,967.40 per dwelling, £393.33 (16.7%) below the £2,360.73 Band D headline, because most of the stock sits in bands charged at less than the Band D rate. On that measure Bradford is 263rd of 318 authorities with published stock counts, against a £2,269.00 average. That places Bradford 6th of the 15 billing authorities in Yorkshire and The Humber, above the regional median of £1,939.70.
How to read this stock pattern
Band D is a poor description of the largest group in Bradford'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 £1,967.40 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 62.3% 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.
Bradford occupies the middle half of the Yorkshire and The Humber stock-weighted distribution, above its £1,939.70 median. The regional result gives more context than a UK-wide rank without turning the difference into a superlative. It also shows that the council's band mix, not only its published Band D rate, determines where it sits among nearby authorities. The remaining distance from the median is an area-level comparison rather than a household saving or premium.
Closest housing-stock shape: Wirral
Wirral is an exceptionally close stock-shape match for Bradford: moving 1.9% 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 is lower on the ladder at Band A: Bradford has 41.4% of dwellings there, against 40.2% in Wirral. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
- A smaller distinction sits at lower Band B, where Wirral holds 21.8% of its stock and Bradford holds 20.9%. The peer is more bottom-weighted at this rung of the valuation list.
- A smaller distinction is at reference Band D: its share is 8.5% in Bradford and 9.0% in Wirral. The familiar benchmark represents a larger slice of the peer's housing stock.
- A smaller distinction is an upper-band difference at Band G. Wirral records 2.1% of dwellings there, compared with 1.7% in Bradford, so the peer carries more of its stock at that higher rung.
How the wider profile compares
Bradford has the stronger combined lower-band tilt: Bands A to C account for 0.7% more of its stock than they do in Wirral. The nearest match still leaves that bottom-of-ladder difference visible.
Across Bands E and above the combined shares differ by 0.2%. As with the lower bands, this net comparison does not erase any opposing gaps between individual upper bands.
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 H is the most stable point in the comparison, with shares of 0.1% and 0.2%. 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 Bradford
- Band B leans toward Wirral
- Band C is closely balanced
- Band D is closely balanced
- Band E is closely balanced
- Band F is closely balanced
- Band G is closely balanced
- Band H is closely balanced
This sequence is read from the lowest published band to the highest.
Other close England matches for Bradford: Newcastle-under-Lyme (3.3% redistribution distance); Leeds (3.4% redistribution distance); St Helens (4.0% redistribution distance); Redcar & Cleveland (4.3% redistribution distance). Ranked across every published band in the England valuation system, this shortlist shows whether Wirral stands alone or sits in a cluster of similarly shaped authorities.
| Band | Properties | Share of stock | Annual charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 92,740 | 41.4% | £1,573.82 |
| B | 46,950 | 20.9% | £1,836.12 |
| C | 41,680 | 18.6% | £2,098.43 |
| D | 19,040 | 8.5% | £2,360.73 |
| E | 13,340 | 6.0% | £2,885.34 |
| F | 6,270 | 2.8% | £3,409.94 |
| G | 3,820 | 1.7% | £3,934.55 |
| H | 330 | 0.1% | £4,721.46 |
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 Bradford 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.
- Torfaen£1,969.96
- Gloucester£1,969.79
- Bolsover£1,967.82
- Cannock Chase£1,965.17
- Blackpool£1,964.79
Bradford's nearest year-on-year movers
Bradford moved Band D from £2,246.15 to £2,360.73 (+5.10%, competition rank 117th of 350). The closest published movements sit with Bridgend, Central Bedfordshire, Hertsmere.
- Bridgend5.11%
- Central Bedfordshire5.10%
- Hertsmere5.09%
- Torbay5.09%
- Welwyn Hatfield5.09%
- West Devon5.09%
How Bradford compares in Yorkshire and The Humber
Among the 15 billing authorities in Yorkshire and The Humber, Bradford's 2026-27 Band D charge of £2,360.73 ranks 8th of 15, higher than 47% of them (£13.27 below the Yorkshire and The Humber average of £2,374.00). Its nearest-charged neighbours in the region:
| Region rank | Council | Band D 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| 6th | Calderdale | £2,420.15 |
| 7th | Rotherham | £2,381.53 |
| 8th | Bradford | £2,360.73 |
| 9th | North Lincolnshire | £2,348.46 |
| 10th | Barnsley | £2,325.96 |
Regional rank out of 15 Yorkshire and The Humber billing authorities by 2026-27 Band D charge (1 = dearest). See the full UK ranking or the complete directory.
Questions answered from Bradford's data
These answers use Bradford's £2,360.73 Band D rate, the England statutory multipliers, and the VOA stock mix (modal Band A, 80.9% below D).
Is Bradford Council Tax above the UK average?
Bradford's 2026-27 Band D rate is £2,360.73, 1.0% above the UK average of £2,337.00. It has competition rank 211th of 350, with equal charges sharing a rank. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Bexley, Rochford, Birmingham, Erewash, then Winchester, Gloucester.
Which councils have charges closest to Bradford?
The closest published Band D rates are Bexley (£2,366.36), Rochford (£2,363.48), Birmingham (£2,362.90), Erewash (£2,360.64), Winchester (£2,359.76), Gloucester (£2,355.84). The comparison table above shows the six nearest authorities and the exact difference from Bradford.
What is the average Council Tax bill in Bradford?
Across Bradford's 224,170 domestic properties, the stock-weighted average charge is £1,967.40 for 2026-27. That is £393.33 below the £2,360.73 Band D rate, because the most common band here is Band A (41.4% of the stock) and 80.9% of dwellings are banded below D. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Newcastle-under-Lyme, Leeds, St Helens, Redcar & Cleveland. Property counts are from the VOA 2025 stock release; the weighting is our calculation.
How did Bradford Council Tax change for 2026-27?
Band D moved from £2,246.15 to £2,360.73, a 5.10% rise. Its competition rank by annual increase is 117th of 350; the closest movements include Bridgend, Central Bedfordshire, Hertsmere.
Advice boundary for Bradford
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 England Band D dataset and statutory England 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. Bradford is a metropolitan borough: own charge plus policing and fire precepts, with parish elements uncommon. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Bexley, Rochford, Birmingham, Erewash, then Winchester, Gloucester. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Newcastle-under-Lyme, Leeds, St Helens, Redcar & Cleveland. For a binding figure consult your Bradford 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 Bradford are the area Band D and statutory band multiples with no county tier. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Bexley, Rochford, Birmingham, Erewash, then Winchester, Gloucester.