St Albans Council Tax 2026
East of England, England · 63,560 domestic properties
According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, St Albans's Band D Council Tax is £2,419.22 for 2026-27, the 172nd highest of 350 UK billing authorities (higher than 51% of them) and 4% above the UK average of £2,337.00. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Calderdale, New Forest, Ceredigion, Canterbury, then Crawley, North West Leicestershire. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Epsom & Ewell, Windsor & Maidenhead, Three Rivers, Wokingham.
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 Calderdale, New Forest, Ceredigion, Canterbury, then Crawley, North West Leicestershire. See our methodology page for the full source-to-figure lineage.
- £2,419.22
- Band D charge · 2026 statutory
- Above the UK average
- +4.91%
- year-on-year vs £2,305.95
- Middle-half rise
- +3.5%
- vs UK avg £2,337.00
- £4,838.44
- Band H · 18/9 of Band D
Nearest published Band D rates sit with Calderdale, New Forest, Ceredigion, Canterbury, then Crawley, North West Leicestershire. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Epsom & Ewell, Windsor & Maidenhead, Three Rivers, Wokingham. Open Calderdale for the closest published Band D on the same vintage.
St Albans · year-on-year Band D
What changed for St Albans
St Albans's Band D Council Tax rose from £2,305.95 (2025-26) to £2,419.22 (2026-27). Among 350 billing authorities by percentage rise, it ranks 177.
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 changesSt Albans bands A-H schedule
Per-band charge 2026
St Albans's nearest Band D charges nationwide
St Albans is 172nd of 350 on the national Band D list at £2,419.22. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Calderdale, New Forest, Ceredigion, Canterbury, then Crawley, North West Leicestershire. The six closest published 2026-27 rates, led by Calderdale, 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 East of England ranking further down when you care about local neighbours, and the stock-weighted average when you care what most of St Albans's 63,560 dwellings actually pay. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Epsom & Ewell, Windsor & Maidenhead, Three Rivers, Wokingham.
| Council | Band D | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Calderdale | £2,420.15 | +£0.93 |
| New Forest | £2,419.76 | +£0.54 |
| Ceredigion | £2,419.45 | +£0.23 |
| Canterbury | £2,419.33 | +£0.11 |
| Crawley | £2,418.46 | −£0.76 |
| North West Leicestershire | £2,418.20 | −£1.02 |
Band A–H charge table (2026/2027)
| Band | Annual Charge | Monthly | Sole occupant (−25%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,612.81 | £161.28 | £1,209.61 |
| B | £1,881.62 | £188.16 | £1,411.22 |
| C | £2,150.42 | £215.04 | £1,612.82 |
| D | £2,419.22 | £241.92 | £1,814.42 |
| E | £2,956.82 | £295.68 | £2,217.62 |
| F | £3,494.43 | £349.44 | £2,620.82 |
| G | £4,032.03 | £403.20 | £3,024.02 |
| H | £4,838.44 | £483.84 | £3,628.83 |
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 St Albans's 63,560 properties actually pay
St Albans is one of the authorities where Band D genuinely is the commonest band — 16,550 of 63,560 dwellings (26.0%). The headline rate above therefore describes the typical home here, rather than sitting above it as it does in most of the country. It takes 3 bands — C, D, E — to cover half the stock, a wider spread than most authorities show. 23.0% 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 £2,872.96 per dwelling, £453.74 (18.8%) above the £2,419.22 Band D headline. On that measure St Albans is 16th of 318 authorities with published stock counts, against a £2,269.00 average. No billing authority in East of England charges more per dwelling across its stock than St Albans does.
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 St Albans 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.
St Albans 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.
St Albans sets the upper edge of the East of England 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 St Albans has the region's highest bill.
Closest housing-stock shape: Surrey Heath
Surrey Heath is the closest full-distribution match for St Albans. The profiles are close rather than identical: 3.8% 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 appears in the upper part of the ladder at Band E. St Albans places 20.6% of dwellings there versus 17.8% for Surrey Heath, giving this profile the heavier upper-band tail at that point.
- A smaller distinction sits at lower Band B, where Surrey Heath holds 6.8% of its stock and St Albans holds 5.1%. 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 H. St Albans places 2.2% of dwellings there versus 1.4% for Surrey Heath, giving this profile the heavier upper-band tail at that point.
- A smaller distinction is an upper-band difference at Band G. Surrey Heath records 13.8% of dwellings there, compared with 13.0% in St Albans, so the peer carries more of its stock at that higher rung.
How the wider profile compares
Surrey Heath is more concentrated across Bands A to C in aggregate, by 2.2% of its stock. St Albans's closest match is therefore achieved despite the peer carrying more homes below the reference band.
St Albans carries 2.6% more of its stock in Bands E and above than Surrey Heath. The extra upper-tail weight is small enough for this to remain the nearest peer, but large enough to distinguish the two areas.
Both profiles peak in Band D, 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 C is the most stable point in the comparison, with shares of 16.6% and 16.5%. 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 leans toward Surrey Heath
- Band B leans toward Surrey Heath
- Band C is closely balanced
- Band D is closely balanced
- Band E leans toward St Albans
- Band F is closely balanced
- Band G leans toward Surrey Heath
- Band H leans toward St Albans
This sequence is read from the lowest published band to the highest.
Other close England matches for St Albans: Epsom & Ewell (5.0% redistribution distance); Windsor & Maidenhead (5.2% redistribution distance); Three Rivers (5.3% redistribution distance); Wokingham (6.0% redistribution distance). Ranked across every published band in the England valuation system, this shortlist shows whether Surrey Heath stands alone or sits in a cluster of similarly shaped authorities.
| Band | Properties | Share of stock | Annual charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 880 | 1.4% | £1,612.81 |
| B | 3,230 | 5.1% | £1,881.62 |
| C | 10,540 | 16.6% | £2,150.42 |
| D | 16,550 | 26.0% | £2,419.22 |
| E | 13,110 | 20.6% | £2,956.82 |
| F | 9,540 | 15.0% | £3,494.43 |
| G | 8,280 | 13.0% | £4,032.03 |
| H | 1,430 | 2.2% | £4,838.44 |
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 St Albans 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.
- Woking£2,914.95
- Buckinghamshire£2,887.01
- Three Rivers£2,863.88
- Wokingham£2,860.70
- South Oxfordshire£2,853.05
St Albans's nearest year-on-year movers
St Albans moved Band D from £2,305.95 to £2,419.22 (+4.91%, competition rank 177th of 350). The closest published movements sit with East Hertfordshire, Mid Suffolk, Vale of White Horse.
- East Hertfordshire4.92%
- Mid Suffolk4.91%
- Vale of White Horse4.91%
- Arun4.90%
- Cumberland4.90%
- Fareham4.90%
How St Albans compares in East of England
Among the 45 billing authorities in East of England, St Albans's 2026-27 Band D charge of £2,419.22 ranks 21st of 45, higher than 53% of them (£28.22 above the East of England average of £2,391.00). Its nearest-charged neighbours in the region:
| Region rank | Council | Band D 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| 19th | King's Lynn & West Norfolk | £2,430.13 |
| 20th | Three Rivers | £2,422.31 |
| 21st | St Albans | £2,419.22 |
| 22nd | Great Yarmouth | £2,414.41 |
| 23rd | Dacorum | £2,408.51 |
Regional rank out of 45 East of England billing authorities by 2026-27 Band D charge (1 = dearest). See the full UK ranking or the complete directory.
Questions answered from St Albans's data
These answers use St Albans's £2,419.22 Band D rate, the England statutory multipliers, and the VOA stock mix (modal Band D, 23.0% below D).
Is St Albans Council Tax above the UK average?
St Albans's 2026-27 Band D rate is £2,419.22, 3.5% above the UK average of £2,337.00. It has competition rank 172nd of 350, with equal charges sharing a rank. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Calderdale, New Forest, Ceredigion, Canterbury, then Crawley, North West Leicestershire.
Which councils have charges closest to St Albans?
The closest published Band D rates are Calderdale (£2,420.15), New Forest (£2,419.76), Ceredigion (£2,419.45), Canterbury (£2,419.33), Crawley (£2,418.46), North West Leicestershire (£2,418.20). The comparison table above shows the six nearest authorities and the exact difference from St Albans.
What is the average Council Tax bill in St Albans?
Across St Albans's 63,560 domestic properties, the stock-weighted average charge is £2,872.96 for 2026-27. That is £453.74 above the £2,419.22 Band D rate, because the most common band here is Band D (26.0% of the stock) and 23.0% of dwellings are banded below D. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Epsom & Ewell, Windsor & Maidenhead, Three Rivers, Wokingham. Property counts are from the VOA 2025 stock release; the weighting is our calculation.
How did St Albans Council Tax change for 2026-27?
Band D moved from £2,305.95 to £2,419.22, a 4.91% rise. Its competition rank by annual increase is 177th of 350; the closest movements include East Hertfordshire, Mid Suffolk, Vale of White Horse.
Advice boundary for St Albans
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. This area Band D is a two-tier total for St Albans: district charge plus county, police, fire where separate, and the average parish precept across the district. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Calderdale, New Forest, Ceredigion, Canterbury, then Crawley, North West Leicestershire. Closest published housing-stock shapes include Epsom & Ewell, Windsor & Maidenhead, Three Rivers, Wokingham. For a binding figure consult your St Albans 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 St Albans are the area Band D and statutory band multiples, already including county, police, fire and average parish precepts where they apply. Nearest published Band D rates sit with Calderdale, New Forest, Ceredigion, Canterbury, then Crawley, North West Leicestershire.