Richmond upon Thames Council Tax 2026

How to read this stock pattern

Here the standard Band D benchmark and the most common property group point to the same part of the distribution. That makes Richmond upon Thames less sensitive than most authorities to the familiar criticism that Band D is merely a reference property. The stock-weighted amount is still useful: it incorporates the lower and upper bands instead of treating the modal group as the whole area. It should be read as a corpus comparison, not as the bill of a particular address.

Richmond upon Thames has a broad valuation-band profile: the largest 3 groups are needed before the cumulative share passes half of the stock. No single band dominates the local picture, which makes a one-band headline especially incomplete. The weighted result is useful for comparing this authority with peers, but the spread across 8 published bands matters just as much. A broad mix also means the area-level mean is less representative of any one household than it is in a concentrated council.

Richmond upon Thames sets the upper edge of the London comparison on this stock-weighted measure. That is stronger evidence than its UK-wide Band D position alone because every authority in the peer set is judged after its own band distribution is applied. The result identifies the most expensive average stock profile in the region; it does not establish that every property in Richmond upon Thames has the region's highest bill.

Closest housing-stock shape: Tandridge

Tandridge is the nearest available full-distribution peer for Richmond upon Thames, although the match is not tight. Aligning the two published profiles would require 6.3% of dwellings to move between valuation bands. Even the closest council therefore has a materially different housing-stock shape.

Four largest band differences

• The largest separation sits at lower Band B, where Tandridge holds 5.8% of its stock and Richmond upon Thames holds 2.5%. The peer is more bottom-weighted at this rung of the valuation list.
• Another material separation appears in the upper part of the ladder at Band E. Richmond upon Thames places 23.0% of dwellings there versus 20.6% for Tandridge, giving this profile the heavier upper-band tail at that point.
• A smaller distinction sits at lower Band A, where Tandridge holds 2.5% of its stock and Richmond upon Thames holds 0.7%. The peer is more bottom-weighted at this rung of the valuation list.
• A smaller distinction is lower on the ladder at Band C: Richmond upon Thames has 15.7% of dwellings there, against 14.2% in Tandridge. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.

How the wider profile compares

Show every band direction

• Band A leans toward Tandridge
• Band B leans toward Tandridge
• Band C leans toward Richmond upon Thames
• Band D is closely balanced
• Band E leans toward Richmond upon Thames
• Band F leans toward Richmond upon Thames
• Band G leans toward Tandridge
• Band H leans toward Richmond upon Thames

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

Other close England matches for Richmond upon Thames: Windsor & Maidenhead (6.7% redistribution distance); St Albans (6.8% redistribution distance); Epsom & Ewell (6.9% redistribution distance); Elmbridge (7.5% redistribution distance). Ranked across every published band in the England valuation system, this shortlist shows whether Tandridge stands alone or sits in a cluster of similarly shaped authorities.