Stoke-on-Trent Council Tax 2026

How to read this stock pattern

Band D is a poor description of the largest group in Stoke-on-Trent'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 £1,635.04 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 58.8% 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.

Stoke-on-Trent forms the lower edge of the West Midlands peer set after each authority's housing mix is taken into account. Its position is therefore not just a low Band D headline: the weighted average remains lowest across the region's published stock profiles. The ranking is an area comparison, not a promise about a particular address, and the band table below retains the within-council variation that the rank compresses.

Closest housing-stock shape: Leicester City

Leicester City is the closest full-distribution match for Stoke-on-Trent. The profiles are close rather than identical: 3.3% 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 lower on the ladder at Band B: Stoke-on-Trent has 21.3% of dwellings there, against 19.5% in Leicester City. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
• A smaller distinction is lower on the ladder at Band C: Stoke-on-Trent has 13.3% 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 at reference Band D: its share is 4.3% in Stoke-on-Trent and 5.1% in Leicester City. The familiar benchmark represents a larger slice of the peer's housing stock.
• A smaller distinction sits at lower Band A, where Leicester City holds 59.6% of its stock and Stoke-on-Trent holds 58.8%. The peer is more bottom-weighted at this rung of the valuation list.

How the wider profile compares

Show every band direction

• Band A leans toward Leicester City
• Band B leans toward Stoke-on-Trent
• Band C leans toward Stoke-on-Trent
• Band D leans toward Leicester City
• Band E leans toward Leicester City
• Band F leans toward Leicester City
• 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 Stoke-on-Trent: Liverpool (3.6% redistribution distance); Lincoln (5.1% redistribution distance); City of Nottingham (5.5% redistribution distance); Bolsover (5.6% 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.