Lancaster Council Tax 2026
North West, England · 67,050 domestic properties
Lancaster Band D is £2,503.19 for 2026-27, the 96th 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, Lancaster's published Band D Council Tax is £2,503.19 for 2026-27 (OVER). Competition rank is 96th of 350 (higher than 73% of authorities).
- £2,503.19 Band D · OVER
- 96th of 350 authorities
- +7.1% vs UK average
According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, Lancaster's Band D Council Tax is £2,503.19 for 2026-27 (OVER), the 96th highest of 350 UK billing authorities (higher than 73% 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.
- £2,503.19
- Band D charge · 2026 statutory
- Above the UK average
- +3.97%
- year-on-year vs £2,407.50
- Lower-quarter rise
- +7.1%
- vs UK avg £2,337.00
- £5,006.38
- Band H · 18/9 of Band D
Lancaster · year-on-year Band D
What changed for Lancaster
Lancaster's Band D Council Tax rose from £2,407.50 (2025-26) to £2,503.19 (2026-27). Among 350 billing authorities by percentage rise, it ranks 315.
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
Lancaster 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.
- £2,503.19 Published Band D 2026-27 OVER
- 96th of 350 UK authorities 73rd percentile
- +4.0% Year-on-year Band D MID
- 67,050 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 Lancaster Band D figure shows
The published Band D charge of £2,503.19 places Lancaster 96th 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 7.1% above the simple UK average of £2,337.00, while the percentile shows that 73% of the recorded authorities have a lower Band D charge.
The more useful local comparison is North West. Here, Lancaster ranks 16th 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.
Lancaster bands A-H schedule
Per-band charge 2026
Band A–H charge table (2026/2027)
| Band | Annual Charge | Monthly | Sole occupant (−25%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,668.79 | £166.88 | £1,251.59 |
| B | £1,946.93 | £194.69 | £1,460.20 |
| C | £2,225.06 | £222.51 | £1,668.80 |
| D | £2,503.19 | £250.32 | £1,877.39 |
| E | £3,059.45 | £305.95 | £2,294.59 |
| F | £3,615.72 | £361.57 | £2,711.79 |
| G | £4,171.98 | £417.20 | £3,128.98 |
| H | £5,006.38 | £500.64 | £3,754.79 |
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 Lancaster's 67,050 properties actually pay
Most homes in Lancaster sit in Band A, the bottom of the valuation list: 23,600 of 67,050 dwellings (35.2%). 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: 79.0% of dwellings here are banded below D.
Stock-weighted average £2,114.80 is £388.39 (15.5%) below Band D £2,503.19 - 210th of 318 authorities with published counts (corpus mean £2,269.00). That places Lancaster 16th of the 35 billing authorities in North West, above the regional median of £2,089.63.
Lancaster property mix · A–C / D / E–H · AHEAVY
Sums to 67,050 VOA dwellings, band mix, not a household bill.
Closest housing-stock shape: Bury
Bury is the closest full-distribution match for Lancaster. The profiles are close rather than identical: 3.7% of dwellings would need to shift between valuation bands for their published shares to align. The comparison therefore tests the whole ladder, not just the largest band.
Four largest band differences
- The largest separation is lower on the ladder at Band B: Lancaster has 24.6% of dwellings there, against 21.9% in Bury. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
- A smaller distinction sits at lower Band C, where Bury holds 20.6% of its stock and Lancaster holds 19.1%. 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. Lancaster places 3.2% of dwellings there versus 2.2% for Bury, giving this profile the heavier upper-band tail at that point.
- A smaller distinction is at reference Band D: its share is 10.1% in Lancaster and 11.0% in Bury. The familiar benchmark represents a larger slice of the peer's housing stock.
Other close England matches for Lancaster: Birmingham (4.0% redistribution distance); Leeds (4.0% redistribution distance); Fenland (4.1% redistribution distance); Peterborough (4.4% redistribution distance).
| Band | Properties | Share of stock | Annual charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 23,600 | 35.2% | £1,668.79 |
| B | 16,510 | 24.6% | £1,946.93 |
| C | 12,830 | 19.1% | £2,225.06 |
| D | 6,750 | 10.1% | £2,503.19 |
| E | 4,280 | 6.4% | £3,059.45 |
| F | 2,130 | 3.2% | £3,615.72 |
| G | 870 | 1.3% | £4,171.98 |
| H | 80 | 0.1% | £5,006.38 |
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 Lancaster on stock-weighted charge (AHEAVY) - a different ordering from Band D twins.
- Walsall£2,123.22
- Medway£2,117.11
- East Suffolk£2,114.93
- Staffordshire Moorlands£2,113.88
- Harlow£2,106.28
Lancaster's nearest year-on-year movers · MID
Lancaster moved Band D from £2,407.50 to £2,503.19 (+3.97%, MID; competition rank 315th of 350). Closest published movements: Wyre, City of Edinburgh, Newcastle-under-Lyme.
MID signal for Lancaster: increase below 4% - slower-moving part of the current dataset.
- Wyre4.01%
- City of Edinburgh4.00%
- Newcastle-under-Lyme3.98%
- West Lancashire3.98%
- Preston3.95%
- Rossendale3.94%
How Lancaster compares in North West
Among the 35 billing authorities in North West, Lancaster's 2026-27 Band D charge of £2,503.19 ranks 16th of 35, higher than 54% of them (£20.19 above the North West average of £2,483.00). Its nearest-charged neighbours in the region:
| Region rank | Council | Band D 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| 14th | Cumberland | £2,511.32 |
| 15th | Westmorland and Furness | £2,507.99 |
| 16th | Lancaster | £2,503.19 |
| 17th | Wirral | £2,500.59 |
| 18th | Knowsley | £2,488.25 |
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. This area Band D is a two-tier total for Lancaster: district charge plus county, police, fire where separate, and the average parish precept across the district. For a binding figure consult your Lancaster 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 Lancaster are the area Band D and statutory band multiples, already including county, police, fire and average parish precepts where they apply.