Dorset Council Council Tax 2026
South West, England · 187,690 domestic properties
According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, Dorset Council's Band D Council Tax is £2,765.02 for 2026-27, the 1st highest of 350 UK billing authorities (higher than 100% of them) and 18% above the UK average of £2,337.00. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Lewes, City of Nottingham, Rutland, Wealden, then Gateshead, Bristol. Closest published housing-stock shapes include East Devon, Arun, Rushcliffe, Wiltshire.
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 Lewes, City of Nottingham, Rutland, Wealden, then Gateshead, Bristol. See our methodology page for the full source-to-figure lineage.
- £2,765.02
- Band D charge · 2026 statutory
- Among the highest in the UK
- +5.12%
- year-on-year vs £2,630.30
- Middle-half rise
- +18.3%
- vs UK avg £2,337.00
- £5,530.04
- Band H · 18/9 of Band D
Nearest published Band D rates sit with Lewes, City of Nottingham, Rutland, Wealden, then Gateshead, Bristol. Closest published housing-stock shapes include East Devon, Arun, Rushcliffe, Wiltshire. Open Lewes for the closest published Band D on the same vintage.
Dorset Council · year-on-year Band D
What changed for Dorset Council
Dorset Council's Band D Council Tax rose from £2,630.30 (2025-26) to £2,765.02 (2026-27). Among 350 billing authorities by percentage rise, it ranks 109.
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 changesDorset Council bands A-H schedule
Per-band charge 2026
Dorset Council's nearest Band D charges nationwide
Dorset Council is 1st of 350 on the national Band D list at £2,765.02. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Lewes, City of Nottingham, Rutland, Wealden, then Gateshead, Bristol. The six closest published 2026-27 rates, led by Lewes, 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 South West ranking further down when you care about local neighbours, and the stock-weighted average when you care what most of Dorset Council's 187,690 dwellings actually pay. Closest published housing-stock shapes include East Devon, Arun, Rushcliffe, Wiltshire.
National high-charge outlier: this rate is inside the costliest 10% of the UK corpus, so nearby national peers are a more useful benchmark than the UK average alone.
| Council | Band D | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Lewes | £2,756.17 | −£8.85 |
| City of Nottingham | £2,755.39 | −£9.63 |
| Rutland | £2,737.58 | −£27.44 |
| Wealden | £2,728.43 | −£36.59 |
| Gateshead | £2,715.81 | −£49.21 |
| Bristol | £2,713.68 | −£51.34 |
Band A–H charge table (2026/2027)
| Band | Annual Charge | Monthly | Sole occupant (−25%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,843.35 | £184.33 | £1,382.51 |
| B | £2,150.57 | £215.06 | £1,612.93 |
| C | £2,457.80 | £245.78 | £1,843.35 |
| D | £2,765.02 | £276.50 | £2,073.77 |
| E | £3,379.47 | £337.95 | £2,534.60 |
| F | £3,993.92 | £399.39 | £2,995.44 |
| G | £4,608.37 | £460.84 | £3,456.28 |
| H | £5,530.04 | £553.00 | £4,147.53 |
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 Dorset Council's 187,690 properties actually pay
Dorset Council's housing stock peaks below the reference point, in Band C, which covers 43,460 of 187,690 dwellings (23.2%). A Band C home is charged at eight-ninths of the Band D rate, which is why the typical bill here lands under the headline figure. It takes 3 bands — B, C, D — to cover half the stock, a wider spread than most authorities show. 51.3% 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 £2,779.16 per dwelling, £14.14 (0.5%) above the £2,765.02 Band D headline. On that measure Dorset Council is 23rd of 318 authorities with published stock counts, against a £2,269.00 average. No billing authority in South West charges more per dwelling across its stock than Dorset Council does.
How to read this stock pattern
Dorset Council's largest property group sits in the lower half of the valuation ladder rather than at the Band D reference used in national tables. Its modal Band C charge is eight-ninths of the Band D rate, and 51.3% of the published stock lies below D. The headline alone does not show how often each band occurs. The stock-weighted amount applies the full distribution for an area-level comparison, while remaining an average rather than a household quotation.
Dorset Council has a broad valuation-band profile: the largest 3 groups are needed before the cumulative share passes half of the stock. No single band dominates the local picture, which makes a one-band headline especially incomplete. The weighted result is useful for comparing this authority with peers, but the spread across 8 published bands matters just as much. A broad mix also means the area-level mean is less representative of any one household than it is in a concentrated council.
Dorset Council sets the upper edge of the South West comparison on this stock-weighted measure. That is stronger evidence than its UK-wide Band D position alone because every authority in the peer set is judged after its own band distribution is applied. The result identifies the most expensive average stock profile in the region; it does not establish that every property in Dorset Council has the region's highest bill.
Closest housing-stock shape: Rother
Rother is an exceptionally close stock-shape match for Dorset Council: moving 3.0% 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 an upper-band difference at Band G. Rother records 5.9% of dwellings there, compared with 4.4% in Dorset Council, so the peer carries more of its stock at that higher rung.
- A smaller distinction is lower on the ladder at Band C: Dorset Council has 23.2% of dwellings there, against 21.8% in Rother. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
- A smaller distinction is lower on the ladder at Band B: Dorset Council has 17.0% of dwellings there, against 15.8% in Rother. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
- A smaller distinction is an upper-band difference at Band E. Rother records 16.4% of dwellings there, compared with 15.4% in Dorset Council, so the peer carries more of its stock at that higher rung.
How the wider profile compares
Dorset Council has the stronger combined lower-band tilt: Bands A to C account for 3.0% more of its stock than they do in Rother. The nearest match still leaves that bottom-of-ladder difference visible.
Rother carries the heavier upper tail across Bands E and above, exceeding Dorset Council's combined share there by 2.8%. Total-variation distance counts those absolute band gaps without assuming they offset the lower-band pattern.
Both profiles peak in Band C, 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 D is the most stable point in the comparison, with shares of 19.9% and 20.1%. 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 is closely balanced
- Band B leans toward Dorset Council
- Band C leans toward Dorset Council
- Band D is closely balanced
- Band E leans toward Rother
- Band F is closely balanced
- Band G leans toward Rother
- Band H is closely balanced
This sequence is read from the lowest published band to the highest.
Other close England matches for Dorset Council: East Devon (4.1% redistribution distance); Arun (4.4% redistribution distance); Rushcliffe (4.7% redistribution distance); Wiltshire (4.7% redistribution distance). Ranked across every published band in the England valuation system, this shortlist shows whether Rother stands alone or sits in a cluster of similarly shaped authorities.
| Band | Properties | Share of stock | Annual charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 20,840 | 11.1% | £1,843.35 |
| B | 31,920 | 17.0% | £2,150.57 |
| C | 43,460 | 23.2% | £2,457.80 |
| D | 37,440 | 19.9% | £2,765.02 |
| E | 28,910 | 15.4% | £3,379.47 |
| F | 16,150 | 8.6% | £3,993.92 |
| G | 8,230 | 4.4% | £4,608.37 |
| H | 740 | 0.4% | £5,530.04 |
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 Dorset Council 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.
Dorset Council's nearest year-on-year movers
Dorset Council moved Band D from £2,630.30 to £2,765.02 (+5.12%, competition rank 109th of 350). The closest published movements sit with Leeds, Calderdale, Tewkesbury.
- Leeds5.13%
- Calderdale5.12%
- Tewkesbury5.12%
- Wokingham5.12%
- Bridgend5.11%
- Herefordshire5.11%
How Dorset Council compares in South West
Among the 27 billing authorities in South West, Dorset Council's 2026-27 Band D charge of £2,765.02 ranks 1st of 27, higher than 96% of them (£254.02 above the South West average of £2,511.00). Its nearest-charged neighbours in the region:
Regional high-charge outlier: this authority sits in the costliest fifth of South West.
| Region rank | Council | Band D 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Dorset Council | £2,765.02 |
| 2nd | Bristol | £2,713.68 |
| 3rd | West Devon | £2,705.33 |
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.
Questions answered from Dorset Council's data
These answers use Dorset Council's £2,765.02 Band D rate, the England statutory multipliers, and the VOA stock mix (modal Band C, 51.3% below D).
Is Dorset Council Council Tax above the UK average?
Dorset Council's 2026-27 Band D rate is £2,765.02, 18.3% above the UK average of £2,337.00. It has competition rank 1st of 350, with equal charges sharing a rank. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Lewes, City of Nottingham, Rutland, Wealden, then Gateshead, Bristol.
Which councils have charges closest to Dorset Council?
The closest published Band D rates are Lewes (£2,756.17), City of Nottingham (£2,755.39), Rutland (£2,737.58), Wealden (£2,728.43), Gateshead (£2,715.81), Bristol (£2,713.68). The comparison table above shows the six nearest authorities and the exact difference from Dorset Council.
What is the average Council Tax bill in Dorset Council?
Across Dorset Council's 187,690 domestic properties, the stock-weighted average charge is £2,779.16 for 2026-27. That is £14.14 above the £2,765.02 Band D rate, because the most common band here is Band C (23.2% of the stock) and 51.3% of dwellings are banded below D. Closest published housing-stock shapes include East Devon, Arun, Rushcliffe, Wiltshire. Property counts are from the VOA 2025 stock release; the weighting is our calculation.
How did Dorset Council Council Tax change for 2026-27?
Band D moved from £2,630.30 to £2,765.02, a 5.12% rise. Its competition rank by annual increase is 109th of 350; the closest movements include Leeds, Calderdale, Tewkesbury.
Advice boundary for Dorset Council
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. Dorset Council 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. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Lewes, City of Nottingham, Rutland, Wealden, then Gateshead, Bristol. Closest published housing-stock shapes include East Devon, Arun, Rushcliffe, Wiltshire. For a binding figure consult your Dorset Council 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 Dorset Council are the area Band D and statutory band multiples with no county tier. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Lewes, City of Nottingham, Rutland, Wealden, then Gateshead, Bristol.