Cardiff Council Tax 2026
Wales · 167,360 domestic properties
Cardiff Band D is £2,013.18 for 2026-27, the 309th highest of 350 UK billing authorities (14% below the UK average of £2,337.00).
According to Welsh Government / StatsWales, Council Tax levels 2026-27, Cardiff's published Band D Council Tax is £2,013.18 for 2026-27 (UNDER). Competition rank is 309th of 350 (higher than 12% of authorities).
- £2,013.18 Band D · UNDER
- 309th of 350 authorities
- -13.9% vs UK average
According to Welsh Government / StatsWales, Council Tax levels 2026-27, Cardiff's Band D Council Tax is £2,013.18 for 2026-27 (UNDER), the 309th highest of 350 UK billing authorities (higher than 12% of them) and 14% below the UK average of £2,337.00.
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. See our methodology page for the full source-to-figure lineage.
- £2,013.18
- Band D charge · 2026 statutory
- Below the UK average
- +4.52%
- year-on-year vs £1,926.18
- Middle-half rise
- -13.9%
- vs UK avg £2,337.00
- £4,697.42
- Band I · 21/9 of Band D
Cardiff · year-on-year Band D
What changed for Cardiff
Cardiff's Band D Council Tax rose from £1,926.18 (2025-26) to £2,013.18 (2026-27). Among 350 billing authorities by percentage rise, it ranks 259.
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 changesMHCLG/VOA position brief
Cardiff Band D posture in the 2026-27 corpus
Entity-varying stamps from the joined MHCLG, Scottish CTAS and StatsWales extract plus VOA CTSOP stock counts, ABS(charge) peers, not map neighbours.
- £2,013.18 Published Band D 2026-27 UNDER
- 309th of 350 UK authorities 12th percentile
- +4.5% Year-on-year Band D MID
- 167,360 VOA dwellings on list DHEAVY
Band D charge neighbourhood
Published 2026-27 Band D among the nearest pound-gap peers (snapshot 2026-10-02).
Derived position reading
What the Cardiff Band D figure shows
The published Band D charge of £2,013.18 places Cardiff 309th out of 350 UK billing authorities when ordered from the highest charge down. That position is derived from the full authority table, rather than from a single quoted comparison. It is 13.9% below the simple UK average of £2,337.00, while the percentile shows that 12% of the recorded authorities have a lower Band D charge.
The more useful local comparison is Wales. Here, Cardiff ranks 22nd among 22 billing authorities, against a regional average of £2,326.00. The table of nearby authorities therefore compares published charges in the same geography, not property values or the level of service a household receives. Equal Band D charges share a position, so the ranking does not invent a difference where the underlying values match.
Band D is a statutory reference point, not a bill for every household. Charges for the other bands are calculated from the applicable national ratios, and discounts or exemptions can change an individual bill. This page is best used to understand the current published schedule and how this authority sits within the recorded 2026-27 council-tax corpus.
Cardiff bands A-I schedule
Per-band charge 2026
Band A–I charge table (2026/2027)
| Band | Annual Charge | Monthly | Sole occupant (−25%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,342.12 | £134.21 | £1,006.59 |
| B | £1,565.81 | £156.58 | £1,174.36 |
| C | £1,789.49 | £178.95 | £1,342.12 |
| D | £2,013.18 | £201.32 | £1,509.89 |
| E | £2,460.55 | £246.06 | £1,845.41 |
| F | £2,907.93 | £290.79 | £2,180.95 |
| G | £3,355.30 | £335.53 | £2,516.48 |
| H | £4,026.36 | £402.64 | £3,019.77 |
| I | £4,697.42 | £469.74 | £3,523.07 |
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 Cardiff's 167,360 properties actually pay
Cardiff is one of the authorities where Band D genuinely is the commonest band — 37,550 of 167,360 dwellings (22.4%). The headline rate above therefore describes the typical home here, rather than sitting above it as it does in most of the country. VOA CTSOP stamp DHEAVY: 36.3% of dwellings here are banded below D.
Stock-weighted average £2,238.10 is £224.92 (11.2%) above Band D £2,013.18 - 161st of 318 authorities with published counts (corpus mean £2,269.00). That places Cardiff 12th of the 22 billing authorities in Wales, below the regional median of £2,258.00.
Cardiff property mix · A–C / D / E–I · DHEAVY
Sums to 167,360 VOA dwellings, band mix, not a household bill.
Closest housing-stock shape: Vale of Glamorgan
Vale of Glamorgan is the nearest available full-distribution peer for Cardiff, although the match is not tight. Aligning the two published profiles would require 8.2% 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 falls on the reference band itself. Band D contains 22.4% of Cardiff's stock but 19.1% of Vale of Glamorgan's, so the national headline describes more of the local distribution here.
- Another material separation is an upper-band difference at Band G. Vale of Glamorgan records 9.5% of dwellings there, compared with 6.4% in Cardiff, so the peer carries more of its stock at that higher rung.
- Another material separation sits at lower Band C, where Vale of Glamorgan holds 23.3% of its stock and Cardiff holds 20.9%. The peer is more bottom-weighted at this rung of the valuation list.
- A smaller distinction is an upper-band difference at Band H. Vale of Glamorgan records 3.6% of dwellings there, compared with 1.7% in Cardiff, so the peer carries more of its stock at that higher rung.
Other close Wales matches for Cardiff: Powys (9.1% redistribution distance); Ceredigion (10.1% redistribution distance); Flintshire (12.8% redistribution distance); Pembrokeshire (12.9% redistribution distance).
| Band | Properties | Share of stock | Annual charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 5,320 | 3.2% | £1,342.12 |
| B | 20,470 | 12.2% | £1,565.81 |
| C | 35,010 | 20.9% | £1,789.49 |
| D | 37,550 | 22.4% | £2,013.18 |
| E | 31,680 | 18.9% | £2,460.55 |
| F | 22,320 | 13.3% | £2,907.93 |
| G | 10,660 | 6.4% | £3,355.30 |
| H | 2,870 | 1.7% | £4,026.36 |
| I | 1,480 | 0.9% | £4,697.42 |
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
Closest to Cardiff on stock-weighted charge (DHEAVY) - a different ordering from Band D twins.
- Northumberland£2,243.01
- Wyre Forest£2,241.87
- West Lancashire£2,238.69
- Ealing£2,237.88
- East Riding of Yorkshire£2,233.70
Cardiff's nearest year-on-year movers · MID
Cardiff moved Band D from £1,926.18 to £2,013.18 (+4.52%, MID; competition rank 259th of 350). Closest published movements: Wealden, Bolsover, Rhondda Cynon Taf.
How Cardiff compares in Wales
Among the 22 billing authorities in Wales, Cardiff's 2026-27 Band D charge of £2,013.18 ranks 22nd of 22, higher than 0% of them (£312.82 below the Wales average of £2,326.00). Its nearest-charged neighbours in the region:
Regional low-charge outlier: this authority sits in the least costly fifth of Wales.
| Region rank | Council | Band D 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| 20th | Newport | £2,088.48 |
| 21st | Caerphilly | £2,082.88 |
| 22nd | Cardiff | £2,013.18 |
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.
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. Cardiff's overall average Band D (bands A to I) combines the council charge with police and average community council precepts. For a binding figure consult your Cardiff Council Tax bill or the official gov.uk Council Tax service. Figures published in 2026 reflect the 2026/2027 financial year only.
UK directories, Band D rollup and band challenge
Charges shown for Cardiff are the overall average Band D across bands A to I, including police and community precepts.