England South West 287,780 properties DEAR STEEP LOWBAND

Cornwall Council Tax 2026

South West, England · 287,780 domestic properties

Cornwall Band D is £2,590.93 for 2026-27, the 44th highest of 350 UK billing authorities (11% above the UK average of £2,337.00).

According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, Cornwall's published Band D Council Tax is £2,590.93 for 2026-27 (DEAR). Competition rank is 44th of 350 (higher than 87% of authorities).

  • £2,590.93 Band D · DEAR
  • 44th of 350 authorities
  • +10.9% vs UK average

According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, Cornwall's Band D Council Tax is £2,590.93 for 2026-27 (DEAR), the 44th highest of 350 UK billing authorities (higher than 87% of them) and 11% above 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. 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. See our methodology page for the full source-to-figure lineage.

£2,590.93
Band D charge · 2026 statutory
Above the UK average
+5.33%
year-on-year vs £2,459.92
Upper-quarter rise
+10.9%
vs UK avg £2,337.00
£5,181.86
Band H · 18/9 of Band D

Cornwall · year-on-year Band D

What changed for Cornwall

+£131.01 (+5.33%)

Cornwall's Band D Council Tax rose from £2,459.92 (2025-26) to £2,590.93 (2026-27). Among 350 billing authorities by percentage rise, it ranks 68.

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 changes

MHCLG/VOA position brief

Cornwall 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.

  1. £2,590.93 Published Band D 2026-27 DEAR
  2. 44th of 350 UK authorities 87th percentile
  3. +5.3% Year-on-year Band D STEEP
  4. 287,780 VOA dwellings on list LOWBAND

Band D charge neighbourhood

Published 2026-27 Band D among the nearest pound-gap peers (snapshot 2026-10-02).

East Devon£2,595Tandridge£2,595Salford£2,594Merthyr Tydfil£2,594Cornwall (this)£2,591Stockton-on-Tees£2,590Surrey Heath£2,585

Charge twins

Derived position reading

What the Cornwall Band D figure shows

The published Band D charge of £2,590.93 places Cornwall 44th 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 10.9% above the simple UK average of £2,337.00, while the percentile shows that 87% of the recorded authorities have a lower Band D charge.

The more useful local comparison is South West. Here, Cornwall ranks 10th among 27 billing authorities, against a regional average of £2,511.00. 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.

Cornwall bands A-H schedule

Per-band charge 2026

Band A1727.29Band B2015.17Band C2303.05Band D2590.93Band E3166.69Band F3742.45Band G4318.22Band H5181.86

Band A–H charge table (2026/2027)

Annual, monthly and sole-occupant Council Tax charges by band for Cornwall
Band Annual Charge Monthly Sole occupant (−25%)
A £1,727.29 £172.73 £1,295.47
B £2,015.17 £201.52 £1,511.38
C £2,303.05 £230.31 £1,727.29
D £2,590.93 £259.09 £1,943.20
E £3,166.69 £316.67 £2,375.02
F £3,742.45 £374.25 £2,806.84
G £4,318.22 £431.82 £3,238.67
H £5,181.86 £518.19 £3,886.39
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 Cornwall's 287,780 properties actually pay

Cornwall's housing stock peaks below the reference point, in Band B, which covers 73,390 of 287,780 dwellings (25.5%). A Band B home is charged at seven-ninths of the Band D rate, which is why the typical bill here lands under the headline figure. VOA CTSOP stamp LOWBAND: 69.9% of dwellings here are banded below D.

Stock-weighted average £2,306.51 is £284.42 (11.0%) below Band D £2,590.93 - 131st of 318 authorities with published counts (corpus mean £2,269.00). That places Cornwall 18th of the 27 billing authorities in South West, below the regional median of £2,376.53.

Cornwall property mix · A–C / D / E–H · LOWBAND

Sums to 287,780 VOA dwellings, band mix, not a household bill.

Closest housing-stock shape: North Norfolk

North Norfolk is an exceptionally close stock-shape match for Cornwall: 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 is lower on the ladder at Band A: Cornwall has 23.0% of dwellings there, against 21.5% in North Norfolk. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
  • A smaller distinction is an upper-band difference at Band F. North Norfolk records 4.4% of dwellings there, compared with 3.4% in Cornwall, so the peer carries more of its stock at that higher rung.
  • A smaller distinction is at reference Band D: its share is 15.7% in Cornwall and 16.2% in North Norfolk. The familiar benchmark represents a larger slice of the peer's housing stock.
  • A smaller distinction is lower on the ladder at Band C: Cornwall has 21.4% of dwellings there, against 21.0% in North Norfolk. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.

Other close England matches for Cornwall: East Suffolk (2.5% redistribution distance); North Warwickshire (3.2% redistribution distance); Exeter (3.4% redistribution distance); North Devon (3.7% redistribution distance).

Domestic properties by Council Tax band in Cornwall, with the charge for each band
Band Properties Share of stock Annual charge
A 66,250 23.0% £1,727.29
B 73,390 25.5% £2,015.17
C 61,640 21.4% £2,303.05
D 45,130 15.7% £2,590.93
E 26,850 9.3% £3,166.69
F 9,660 3.4% £3,742.45
G 4,410 1.5% £4,318.22
H 450 0.2% £5,181.86
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 Cornwall on stock-weighted charge (LOWBAND) - a different ordering from Band D twins.

Cornwall's nearest year-on-year movers · STEEP

Cornwall moved Band D from £2,459.92 to £2,590.93 (+5.33%, STEEP; competition rank 68th of 350). Closest published movements: Mid Devon, Newcastle upon Tyne, Carmarthenshire.

How Cornwall compares in South West

Among the 27 billing authorities in South West, Cornwall's 2026-27 Band D charge of £2,590.93 ranks 10th of 27, higher than 63% of them (£79.93 above the South West average of £2,511.00). Its nearest-charged neighbours in the region:

Cornwall and its nearest-charged neighbours in South West
Region rankCouncilBand D 2026-27
8th Torridge £2,601.42
9th East Devon £2,595.46
10th Cornwall £2,590.93
11th Wiltshire £2,571.78
12th Somerset £2,560.59

Regional rank out of 27 South West 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 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. Cornwall is unitary, so this figure combines its own charge (including adult social care) with police and fire precepts where separate, plus any average parish precept. For a binding figure consult your Cornwall 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 Cornwall are the area Band D and statutory band multiples with no county tier.

About this data - sources, vintage and corrections