England North West 138,690 properties OVER MID AHEAVY

Cumberland Council Tax 2026

North West, England · 138,690 domestic properties

Cumberland Band D is £2,511.32 for 2026-27, the 90th highest of 350 UK billing authorities (7% above the UK average of £2,337.00).

According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, Cumberland's published Band D Council Tax is £2,511.32 for 2026-27 (OVER). Competition rank is 90th of 350 (higher than 74% of authorities).

  • £2,511.32 Band D · OVER
  • 90th of 350 authorities
  • +7.5% vs UK average

According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, Cumberland's Band D Council Tax is £2,511.32 for 2026-27 (OVER), the 90th highest of 350 UK billing authorities (higher than 74% of them) and 7% 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.

£2,511.32
Band D charge · 2026 statutory
Above the UK average
+4.90%
year-on-year vs £2,393.90
Middle-half rise
+7.5%
vs UK avg £2,337.00
£5,022.64
Band H · 18/9 of Band D

Cumberland · year-on-year Band D

What changed for Cumberland

+£117.42 (+4.90%)

Cumberland's Band D Council Tax rose from £2,393.90 (2025-26) to £2,511.32 (2026-27). Among 350 billing authorities by percentage rise, it ranks 180.

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

Cumberland 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. £2,511.32 Published Band D 2026-27 OVER
  2. 90th of 350 UK authorities 74th percentile
  3. +4.9% Year-on-year Band D MID
  4. 138,690 VOA dwellings on list AHEAVY

Band D charge neighbourhood

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

Central Bedfordshire£2,516Blackpool£2,513Wyre Forest£2,512Cumberland (this)£2,511Harrow£2,511Sheffield£2,510Westmorland and Furness£2,508

Charge twins

Derived position reading

What the Cumberland Band D figure shows

The published Band D charge of £2,511.32 places Cumberland 90th 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 7.5% above the simple UK average of £2,337.00, while the percentile shows that 74% of the recorded authorities have a lower Band D charge.

The more useful local comparison is North West. Here, Cumberland ranks 14th among 35 billing authorities, against a regional average of £2,483.00. 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.

Cumberland bands A-H schedule

Per-band charge 2026

Band A1674.21Band B1953.25Band C2232.28Band D2511.32Band E3069.39Band F3627.46Band G4185.53Band H5022.64

Band A–H charge table (2026/2027)

Annual, monthly and sole-occupant Council Tax charges by band for Cumberland
Band Annual Charge Monthly Sole occupant (−25%)
A £1,674.21 £167.42 £1,255.66
B £1,953.25 £195.33 £1,464.94
C £2,232.28 £223.23 £1,674.21
D £2,511.32 £251.13 £1,883.49
E £3,069.39 £306.94 £2,302.04
F £3,627.46 £362.75 £2,720.60
G £4,185.53 £418.55 £3,139.15
H £5,022.64 £502.26 £3,766.98
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 Cumberland's 138,690 properties actually pay

Most homes in Cumberland sit in Band A, the bottom of the valuation list: 64,000 of 138,690 dwellings (46.1%). 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. VOA CTSOP stamp AHEAVY: 79.7% of dwellings here are banded below D.

Stock-weighted average £2,050.81 is £460.51 (18.3%) below Band D £2,511.32 - 239th of 318 authorities with published counts (corpus mean £2,269.00). That places Cumberland 23rd of the 35 billing authorities in North West, below the regional median of £2,089.63.

Cumberland property mix · A–C / D / E–H · AHEAVY

Sums to 138,690 VOA dwellings, band mix, not a household bill.

Closest housing-stock shape: North Lincolnshire

North Lincolnshire is an exceptionally close stock-shape match for Cumberland: moving 2.4% 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 sits at lower Band B, where North Lincolnshire holds 21.1% of its stock and Cumberland holds 18.7%. The peer is more bottom-weighted at this rung of the valuation list.
  • A smaller distinction falls on the reference band itself. Band D contains 11.3% of Cumberland's stock but 10.0% of North Lincolnshire's, so the national headline describes more of the local distribution here.
  • A smaller distinction appears in the upper part of the ladder at Band E. Cumberland places 6.1% of dwellings there versus 5.2% for North Lincolnshire, giving this profile the heavier upper-band tail at that point.
  • A smaller distinction is lower on the ladder at Band A: Cumberland has 46.1% of dwellings there, against 45.9% in North Lincolnshire. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.

Other close England matches for Cumberland: Wakefield (2.7% redistribution distance); Halton (3.3% redistribution distance); Darlington (3.7% redistribution distance); Preston (3.7% redistribution distance).

Domestic properties by Council Tax band in Cumberland, with the charge for each band
Band Properties Share of stock Annual charge
A 64,000 46.1% £1,674.21
B 25,970 18.7% £1,953.25
C 20,510 14.8% £2,232.28
D 15,660 11.3% £2,511.32
E 8,500 6.1% £3,069.39
F 2,990 2.2% £3,627.46
G 980 0.7% £4,185.53
H 80 0.1% £5,022.64
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 Cumberland on stock-weighted charge (AHEAVY) - a different ordering from Band D twins.

Cumberland's nearest year-on-year movers · MID

Cumberland moved Band D from £2,393.90 to £2,511.32 (+4.90%, MID; competition rank 180th of 350). Closest published movements: Mid Suffolk, St Albans, Arun.

How Cumberland compares in North West

Among the 35 billing authorities in North West, Cumberland's 2026-27 Band D charge of £2,511.32 ranks 14th of 35, higher than 60% of them (£28.32 above the North West average of £2,483.00). Its nearest-charged neighbours in the region:

Cumberland and its nearest-charged neighbours in North West
Region rankCouncilBand D 2026-27
12th Cheshire West and Chester £2,517.33
13th Blackpool £2,513.22
14th Cumberland £2,511.32
15th Westmorland and Furness £2,507.99
16th Lancaster £2,503.19

Regional rank out of 35 North 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. Cumberland 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 Cumberland 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 Cumberland are the area Band D and statutory band multiples with no county tier.

About this data - sources, vintage and corrections