Liverpool Council Tax 2026
North West, England · 242,350 domestic properties
According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, Liverpool's Band D Council Tax is £2,673.59 for 2026-27, the 13th highest of 350 UK billing authorities (higher than 96% of them) and 14% above the UK average of £2,337.00. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Rother, Newark & Sherwood, Oxford, Hastings, then Mid Devon, Eastbourne. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Lincoln, City of Nottingham, Bolsover, Doncaster.
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 Rother, Newark & Sherwood, Oxford, Hastings, then Mid Devon, Eastbourne. See our methodology page for the full source-to-figure lineage.
- £2,673.59
- Band D charge · 2026 statutory
- Among the highest in the UK
- +4.99%
- year-on-year vs £2,546.45
- Middle-half rise
- +14.4%
- vs UK avg £2,337.00
- £5,347.18
- Band H · 18/9 of Band D
Nearest published Band D rates sit with Rother, Newark & Sherwood, Oxford, Hastings, then Mid Devon, Eastbourne. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Lincoln, City of Nottingham, Bolsover, Doncaster. Open Rother for the closest published Band D on the same vintage.
Liverpool · year-on-year Band D
What changed for Liverpool
Liverpool's Band D Council Tax rose from £2,546.45 (2025-26) to £2,673.59 (2026-27). Among 350 billing authorities by percentage rise, it ranks 157.
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 changesLiverpool bands A-H schedule
Per-band charge 2026
Liverpool's nearest Band D charges nationwide
Liverpool is 13th of 350 on the national Band D list at £2,673.59. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Rother, Newark & Sherwood, Oxford, Hastings, then Mid Devon, Eastbourne. The six closest published 2026-27 rates, led by Rother, 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 North West ranking further down when you care about local neighbours, and the stock-weighted average when you care what most of Liverpool's 242,350 dwellings actually pay. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Lincoln, City of Nottingham, Bolsover, Doncaster.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Rother | £2,700.95 | +£27.36 |
| Newark & Sherwood | £2,682.10 | +£8.51 |
| Oxford | £2,678.40 | +£4.81 |
| Hastings | £2,676.58 | +£2.99 |
| Mid Devon | £2,656.41 | −£17.18 |
| Eastbourne | £2,654.28 | −£19.31 |
Band A–H charge table (2026/2027)
| Band | Annual Charge | Monthly | Sole occupant (−25%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,782.39 | £178.24 | £1,336.79 |
| B | £2,079.46 | £207.95 | £1,559.60 |
| C | £2,376.52 | £237.65 | £1,782.39 |
| D | £2,673.59 | £267.36 | £2,005.19 |
| E | £3,267.72 | £326.77 | £2,450.79 |
| F | £3,861.85 | £386.19 | £2,896.39 |
| G | £4,455.98 | £445.60 | £3,341.98 |
| H | £5,347.18 | £534.72 | £4,010.39 |
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 Liverpool's 242,350 properties actually pay
Most homes in Liverpool sit in Band A, the bottom of the valuation list: 143,890 of 242,350 dwellings (59.4%). 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. More than half of those homes — 59.4% — sit in that single band, an unusually concentrated stock. 90.3% 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 £2,035.92 per dwelling, £637.67 (23.9%) below the £2,673.59 Band D headline, because most of the stock sits in bands charged at less than the Band D rate. On that measure Liverpool is 242nd of 318 authorities with published stock counts, against a £2,269.00 average. That places Liverpool 24th of the 35 billing authorities in North West, below the regional median of £2,089.63.
How to read this stock pattern
Band D is a poor description of the largest group in Liverpool'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 £2,035.92 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.
The distribution is unusually concentrated: one band alone contains 59.4% of all published dwellings. That gives the modal-band comparison real descriptive weight and makes the gap between its charge and Band D easier to interpret. It also means the statutory charge shown for that band applies to the largest share of the local stock before discounts or exemptions. The table remains necessary because the other 7 bands describe the minority of properties that the headline cannot represent.
Liverpool occupies the middle half of the North West stock-weighted distribution, below its £2,089.63 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: Leicester City
Leicester City is an exceptionally close stock-shape match for Liverpool: moving 1.7% 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 Leicester City holds 19.5% of its stock and Liverpool holds 18.6%. 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 5.8% of Liverpool's stock but 5.1% of Leicester City's, so the national headline describes more of the local distribution here.
- A smaller distinction is lower on the ladder at Band C: Liverpool has 12.4% of dwellings there, against 11.7% in Leicester City. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
- A smaller distinction is an upper-band difference at Band E. Leicester City records 2.5% of dwellings there, compared with 2.1% in Liverpool, so the peer carries more of its stock at that higher rung.
How the wider profile compares
Leicester City is more concentrated across Bands A to C in aggregate, by 0.5% of its stock. Liverpool's closest match is therefore achieved despite the peer carrying more homes below the reference band.
Across Bands E and above the combined shares differ by 0.1%. As with the lower bands, this net comparison does not erase any opposing gaps between individual upper bands.
Both profiles peak in Band A, 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 H is the most stable point in the comparison, with shares of 0.1% and 0.0%. 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 Leicester City
- Band C leans toward Liverpool
- Band D leans toward Liverpool
- Band E is closely balanced
- Band F is closely balanced
- Band G is closely balanced
- Band H is closely balanced
This sequence is read from the lowest published band to the highest.
Other close England matches for Liverpool: Lincoln (2.8% redistribution distance); City of Nottingham (3.1% redistribution distance); Bolsover (3.2% redistribution distance); Doncaster (3.4% redistribution distance). Ranked across every published band in the England valuation system, this shortlist shows whether Leicester City stands alone or sits in a cluster of similarly shaped authorities.
| Band | Properties | Share of stock | Annual charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 143,890 | 59.4% | £1,782.39 |
| B | 45,100 | 18.6% | £2,079.46 |
| C | 29,960 | 12.4% | £2,376.52 |
| D | 14,000 | 5.8% | £2,673.59 |
| E | 5,130 | 2.1% | £3,267.72 |
| F | 2,360 | 1.0% | £3,861.85 |
| G | 1,760 | 0.7% | £4,455.98 |
| H | 150 | 0.1% | £5,347.18 |
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 Liverpool 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.
- Lambeth£2,044.83
- Middlesbrough£2,037.84
- Tendring£2,030.91
- Lewisham£2,030.26
- Luton£2,027.22
Liverpool's nearest year-on-year movers
Liverpool moved Band D from £2,546.45 to £2,673.59 (+4.99%, competition rank 157th of 350). The closest published movements sit with Basingstoke & Deane, Fife, Sunderland.
- Basingstoke & Deane5.00%
- Fife5.00%
- Sunderland4.99%
- Tandridge4.99%
- Wirral4.99%
- Dacorum4.98%
How Liverpool compares in North West
Among the 35 billing authorities in North West, Liverpool's 2026-27 Band D charge of £2,673.59 ranks 1st of 35, higher than 97% of them (£190.59 above the North West average of £2,483.00). Its nearest-charged neighbours in the region:
Regional high-charge outlier: this authority sits in the costliest fifth of North West.
| Region rank | Council | Band D 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Liverpool | £2,673.59 |
| 2nd | Pendle | £2,640.18 |
| 3rd | Stockport | £2,618.90 |
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.
Questions answered from Liverpool's data
These answers use Liverpool's £2,673.59 Band D rate, the England statutory multipliers, and the VOA stock mix (modal Band A, 90.3% below D).
Is Liverpool Council Tax above the UK average?
Liverpool's 2026-27 Band D rate is £2,673.59, 14.4% above the UK average of £2,337.00. It has competition rank 13th of 350, with equal charges sharing a rank. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Rother, Newark & Sherwood, Oxford, Hastings, then Mid Devon, Eastbourne.
Which councils have charges closest to Liverpool?
The closest published Band D rates are Rother (£2,700.95), Newark & Sherwood (£2,682.10), Oxford (£2,678.40), Hastings (£2,676.58), Mid Devon (£2,656.41), Eastbourne (£2,654.28). The comparison table above shows the six nearest authorities and the exact difference from Liverpool.
What is the average Council Tax bill in Liverpool?
Across Liverpool's 242,350 domestic properties, the stock-weighted average charge is £2,035.92 for 2026-27. That is £637.67 below the £2,673.59 Band D rate, because the most common band here is Band A (59.4% of the stock) and 90.3% of dwellings are banded below D. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Lincoln, City of Nottingham, Bolsover, Doncaster. Property counts are from the VOA 2025 stock release; the weighting is our calculation.
How did Liverpool Council Tax change for 2026-27?
Band D moved from £2,546.45 to £2,673.59, a 4.99% rise. Its competition rank by annual increase is 157th of 350; the closest movements include Basingstoke & Deane, Fife, Sunderland.
Advice boundary for Liverpool
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. Liverpool is a metropolitan borough: own charge plus policing and fire precepts, with parish elements uncommon. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Rother, Newark & Sherwood, Oxford, Hastings, then Mid Devon, Eastbourne. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Lincoln, City of Nottingham, Bolsover, Doncaster. For a binding figure consult your Liverpool 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 Liverpool are the area Band D and statutory band multiples with no county tier. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Rother, Newark & Sherwood, Oxford, Hastings, then Mid Devon, Eastbourne.