Reading Council Tax 2026
South East, England · 77,380 domestic properties
Reading Band D is £2,612.77 for 2026-27, the 27th 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, Reading's published Band D Council Tax is £2,612.77 for 2026-27 (CEILING). Competition rank is 27th of 350 (higher than 92% of authorities).
- £2,612.77 Band D · CEILING
- 27th of 350 authorities
- +11.8% vs UK average
According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, Reading's Band D Council Tax is £2,612.77 for 2026-27 (CEILING), the 27th highest of 350 UK billing authorities (higher than 92% 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.
- £2,612.77
- Band D charge · 2026 statutory
- Among the highest in the UK
- +5.05%
- year-on-year vs £2,487.11
- Middle-half rise
- +11.8%
- vs UK avg £2,337.00
- £5,225.54
- Band H · 18/9 of Band D
Reading · year-on-year Band D
What changed for Reading
Reading's Band D Council Tax rose from £2,487.11 (2025-26) to £2,612.77 (2026-27). Among 350 billing authorities by percentage rise, it ranks 133.
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
Reading 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.
- £2,612.77 Published Band D 2026-27 CEILING
- 27th of 350 UK authorities 92nd percentile
- +5.0% Year-on-year Band D STEEP
- 77,380 VOA dwellings on list LOWBAND
Band D charge neighbourhood
Published 2026-27 Band D among the nearest pound-gap peers (snapshot 2026-10-02).
Derived position reading
What the Reading Band D figure shows
The published Band D charge of £2,612.77 places Reading 27th 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 11.8% above the simple UK average of £2,337.00, while the percentile shows that 92% of the recorded authorities have a lower Band D charge.
The more useful local comparison is South East. Here, Reading ranks 8th among 64 billing authorities, against a regional average of £2,475.00. 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.
Reading bands A-H schedule
Per-band charge 2026
Band A–H charge table (2026/2027)
| Band | Annual Charge | Monthly | Sole occupant (−25%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,741.85 | £174.19 | £1,306.39 |
| B | £2,032.15 | £203.22 | £1,524.11 |
| C | £2,322.46 | £232.25 | £1,741.85 |
| D | £2,612.77 | £261.28 | £1,959.58 |
| E | £3,193.39 | £319.34 | £2,395.04 |
| F | £3,774.00 | £377.40 | £2,830.50 |
| G | £4,354.62 | £435.46 | £3,265.97 |
| H | £5,225.54 | £522.55 | £3,919.15 |
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 Reading's 77,380 properties actually pay
Reading's housing stock peaks below the reference point, in Band C, which covers 31,530 of 77,380 dwellings (40.7%). 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. VOA CTSOP stamp LOWBAND: 69.5% of dwellings here are banded below D.
Stock-weighted average £2,441.84 is £170.93 (6.5%) below Band D £2,612.77 - 84th of 318 authorities with published counts (corpus mean £2,269.00). That places Reading 36th of the 64 billing authorities in South East, below the regional median of £2,511.00.
Reading property mix · A–C / D / E–H · LOWBAND
Sums to 77,380 VOA dwellings, band mix, not a household bill.
Closest housing-stock shape: Thurrock
Thurrock is the closest full-distribution match for Reading. The profiles are close rather than identical: 4.4% 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 at reference Band D: its share is 15.8% in Reading and 18.2% in Thurrock. The familiar benchmark represents a larger slice of the peer's housing stock.
- A smaller distinction is lower on the ladder at Band C: Reading has 40.7% of dwellings there, against 39.4% in Thurrock. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
- A smaller distinction sits at lower Band A, where Thurrock holds 10.7% of its stock and Reading holds 9.4%. 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 G. Reading places 2.5% of dwellings there versus 1.3% for Thurrock, giving this profile the heavier upper-band tail at that point.
Other close England matches for Reading: Adur (6.2% redistribution distance); Greenwich (8.7% redistribution distance); Broadland (8.9% redistribution distance); Harlow (8.9% redistribution distance).
| Band | Properties | Share of stock | Annual charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 7,270 | 9.4% | £1,741.85 |
| B | 15,000 | 19.4% | £2,032.15 |
| C | 31,530 | 40.7% | £2,322.46 |
| D | 12,250 | 15.8% | £2,612.77 |
| E | 5,930 | 7.7% | £3,193.39 |
| F | 3,390 | 4.4% | £3,774.00 |
| G | 1,910 | 2.5% | £4,354.62 |
| H | 100 | 0.1% | £5,225.54 |
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 Reading on stock-weighted charge (LOWBAND) - a different ordering from Band D twins.
- Cambridge£2,448.27
- Ashford£2,446.83
- Cheshire East£2,446.65
- Harborough£2,438.09
- Wychavon£2,433.50
Reading's nearest year-on-year movers · STEEP
Reading moved Band D from £2,487.11 to £2,612.77 (+5.05%, STEEP; competition rank 133rd of 350). Closest published movements: Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen, Cotswold.
- Blackpool5.06%
- Blackburn with Darwen5.05%
- Cotswold5.05%
- New Forest5.05%
- South Gloucestershire5.05%
- Brighton & Hove5.04%
How Reading compares in South East
Among the 64 billing authorities in South East, Reading's 2026-27 Band D charge of £2,612.77 ranks 8th of 64, higher than 88% of them (£137.77 above the South East average of £2,475.00). Its nearest-charged neighbours in the region:
Regional high-charge outlier: this authority sits in the costliest fifth of South East.
| Region rank | Council | Band D 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| 6th | Eastbourne | £2,654.28 |
| 7th | Isle of Wight | £2,625.79 |
| 8th | Reading | £2,612.77 |
| 9th | Waverley | £2,604.87 |
| 10th | Woking | £2,598.04 |
Regional rank out of 64 South 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. Reading 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 Reading 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 Reading are the area Band D and statutory band multiples with no county tier.