Durham Council Tax 2026
North East, England · 256,330 domestic properties
Durham Band D is £2,622.15 for 2026-27, the 23rd highest of 350 UK billing authorities (12% above the UK average of £2,337.00).
According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, Durham's published Band D Council Tax is £2,622.15 for 2026-27 (CEILING). Competition rank is 23rd of 350 (higher than 93% of authorities).
- £2,622.15 Band D · CEILING
- 23rd of 350 authorities
- +12.2% vs UK average
According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, Durham's Band D Council Tax is £2,622.15 for 2026-27 (CEILING), the 23rd highest of 350 UK billing authorities (higher than 93% of them) and 12% 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.
- £2,622.15
- Band D charge · 2026 statutory
- Among the highest in the UK
- +2.78%
- year-on-year vs £2,551.17
- Lower-quarter rise
- +12.2%
- vs UK avg £2,337.00
- £5,244.30
- Band H · 18/9 of Band D
Durham · year-on-year Band D
What changed for Durham
Durham's Band D Council Tax rose from £2,551.17 (2025-26) to £2,622.15 (2026-27). Among 350 billing authorities by percentage rise, it ranks 344.
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
Durham 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.
- £2,622.15 Published Band D 2026-27 CEILING
- 23rd of 350 UK authorities 93rd percentile
- +2.8% Year-on-year Band D MID
- 256,330 VOA dwellings on list AHEAVY
Band D charge neighbourhood
Published 2026-27 Band D among the nearest pound-gap peers (snapshot 2026-10-02).
Derived position reading
What the Durham Band D figure shows
The published Band D charge of £2,622.15 places Durham 23rd 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 12.2% above the simple UK average of £2,337.00, while the percentile shows that 93% of the recorded authorities have a lower Band D charge.
The more useful local comparison is North East. Here, Durham ranks 2nd among 12 billing authorities, against a regional average of £2,526.00. 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.
Durham bands A-H schedule
Per-band charge 2026
Band A–H charge table (2026/2027)
| Band | Annual Charge | Monthly | Sole occupant (−25%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,748.10 | £174.81 | £1,311.07 |
| B | £2,039.45 | £203.95 | £1,529.59 |
| C | £2,330.80 | £233.08 | £1,748.10 |
| D | £2,622.15 | £262.22 | £1,966.61 |
| E | £3,204.85 | £320.49 | £2,403.64 |
| F | £3,787.55 | £378.76 | £2,840.66 |
| G | £4,370.25 | £437.03 | £3,277.69 |
| H | £5,244.30 | £524.43 | £3,933.23 |
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 Durham's 256,330 properties actually pay
Most homes in Durham sit in Band A, the bottom of the valuation list: 144,180 of 256,330 dwellings (56.2%). 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: 83.4% of dwellings here are banded below D.
Stock-weighted average £2,075.09 is £547.06 (20.9%) below Band D £2,622.15 - 224th of 318 authorities with published counts (corpus mean £2,269.00). That places Durham 5th of the 12 billing authorities in North East, above the regional median of £2,065.00.
Durham property mix · A–C / D / E–H · AHEAVY
Sums to 256,330 VOA dwellings, band mix, not a household bill.
Closest housing-stock shape: Blackburn with Darwen
Blackburn with Darwen is an exceptionally close stock-shape match for Durham: moving 2.5% 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 falls on the reference band itself. Band D contains 9.3% of Durham's stock but 7.8% of Blackburn with Darwen's, so the national headline describes more of the local distribution here.
- A smaller distinction sits at lower Band C, where Blackburn with Darwen holds 14.1% of its stock and Durham holds 12.8%. The peer is more bottom-weighted at this rung of the valuation list.
- A smaller distinction sits at lower Band B, where Blackburn with Darwen holds 15.5% of its stock and Durham holds 14.4%. The peer is more bottom-weighted at this rung of the valuation list.
- A smaller distinction appears in the upper part of the ladder at Band F. Durham places 1.8% of dwellings there versus 1.3% for Blackburn with Darwen, giving this profile the heavier upper-band tail at that point.
Other close England matches for Durham: Barnsley (2.6% redistribution distance); Newcastle upon Tyne (3.4% redistribution distance); Sheffield (3.8% redistribution distance); Rochdale (4.3% redistribution distance).
| Band | Properties | Share of stock | Annual charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 144,180 | 56.2% | £1,748.10 |
| B | 36,900 | 14.4% | £2,039.45 |
| C | 32,740 | 12.8% | £2,330.80 |
| D | 23,760 | 9.3% | £2,622.15 |
| E | 11,630 | 4.5% | £3,204.85 |
| F | 4,520 | 1.8% | £3,787.55 |
| G | 2,320 | 0.9% | £4,370.25 |
| H | 280 | 0.1% | £5,244.30 |
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 Durham on stock-weighted charge (AHEAVY) - a different ordering from Band D twins.
- Nuneaton & Bedworth£2,079.56
- Fenland£2,078.59
- East Staffordshire£2,074.97
- Newport£2,073.12
- City of Nottingham£2,071.05
Durham's nearest year-on-year movers · MID
Durham moved Band D from £2,551.17 to £2,622.15 (+2.78%, MID; competition rank 344th of 350). Closest published movements: Wandsworth, Westminster, Harborough.
MID signal for Durham: increase below 4% - slower-moving part of the current dataset.
- Wandsworth3.05%
- Westminster3.00%
- Harborough2.79%
- Lincoln2.75%
- Doncaster2.71%
- Merton2.50%
How Durham compares in North East
Among the 12 billing authorities in North East, Durham's 2026-27 Band D charge of £2,622.15 ranks 2nd of 12, higher than 83% of them (£96.15 above the North East average of £2,526.00). Its nearest-charged neighbours in the region:
Regional high-charge outlier: this authority sits in the costliest fifth of North East.
| Region rank | Council | Band D 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Gateshead | £2,715.81 |
| 2nd | Durham | £2,622.15 |
| 3rd | Northumberland | £2,596.94 |
| 4th | Stockton-on-Tees | £2,589.83 |
Regional rank out of 12 North East 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. Durham 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 Durham 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 Durham are the area Band D and statutory band multiples with no county tier.