Leeds Council Tax 2026

How to read this stock pattern

Band D is a poor description of the largest group in Leeds's housing stock. The dominant group is Band A, where the statutory charge is two-thirds of the Band D rate, while the reference band describes a different part of the valuation list. The £1,931.89 stock-weighted figure is therefore the more representative area-level comparison. It does not predict an individual bill, because discounts, exemptions and the property's actual valuation band still determine liability.

This is a two-band centre rather than a single-band market. Bands A and B together contain 59.2% of dwellings, so neither band should be presented as a complete account of the area. The stock-weighted result combines both groups and the smaller tails into one comparable measure. The table shows where that mean comes from and prevents the distribution being flattened into an overconfident "typical property" claim.

Leeds occupies the middle half of the Yorkshire and The Humber stock-weighted distribution, below its £1,939.70 median. The regional result gives more context than a UK-wide rank without turning the difference into a superlative. It also shows that the council's band mix, not only its published Band D rate, determines where it sits among nearby authorities. The remaining distance from the median is an area-level comparison rather than a household saving or premium.

Closest housing-stock shape: Amber Valley

Amber Valley is an exceptionally close stock-shape match for Leeds: 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 C: Leeds has 19.5% of dwellings there, against 18.0% in Amber Valley. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
• A smaller distinction is at reference Band D: its share is 10.1% in Leeds and 11.5% in Amber Valley. The familiar benchmark represents a larger slice of the peer's housing stock.
• A smaller distinction is lower on the ladder at Band A: Leeds has 38.0% of dwellings there, against 37.4% in Amber Valley. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
• A smaller distinction is an upper-band difference at Band G. Amber Valley records 2.5% of dwellings there, compared with 2.0% in Leeds, so the peer carries more of its stock at that higher rung.

How the wider profile compares

Show every band direction

• Band A leans toward Leeds
• Band B is closely balanced
• Band C leans toward Leeds
• Band D leans toward Amber Valley
• Band E is closely balanced
• Band F is closely balanced
• Band G leans toward Amber Valley
• Band H is closely balanced

This sequence is read from the lowest published band to the highest.

Other close England matches for Leeds: Wirral (2.9% redistribution distance); Bury (3.1% redistribution distance); Stockton-on-Tees (3.1% redistribution distance); Bradford (3.4% redistribution distance). Ranked across every published band in the England valuation system, this shortlist shows whether Amber Valley stands alone or sits in a cluster of similarly shaped authorities.