Swansea Council Tax 2026

How to read this stock pattern

Swansea's largest property group sits in the lower half of the valuation ladder rather than at the Band D reference used in national tables. Its modal Band B charge is seven-ninths of the Band D rate, and 61.7% of the published stock lies below D. The headline alone does not show how often each band occurs. The stock-weighted amount applies the full distribution for an area-level comparison, while remaining an average rather than a household quotation.

Swansea 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 9 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.

Swansea occupies the middle half of the Wales stock-weighted distribution, below its £2,258.00 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: Bridgend

Bridgend is the closest full-distribution match for Swansea. 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 is at reference Band D: its share is 15.0% in Swansea and 16.7% in Bridgend. The familiar benchmark represents a larger slice of the peer's housing stock.
• A smaller distinction is lower on the ladder at Band B: Swansea has 24.7% of dwellings there, against 23.2% in Bridgend. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
• A smaller distinction appears in the upper part of the ladder at Band G. Swansea places 3.4% of dwellings there versus 2.3% for Bridgend, giving this profile the heavier upper-band tail at that point.
• A smaller distinction sits at lower Band C, where Bridgend holds 22.4% of its stock and Swansea holds 21.6%. 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 Bridgend
• Band B leans toward Swansea
• Band C leans toward Bridgend
• Band D leans toward Bridgend
• Band E leans toward Bridgend
• Band F is closely balanced
• Band G leans toward Swansea
• Band H leans toward Swansea
• Band I is closely balanced

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

Other close Wales matches for Swansea: Gwynedd (4.6% redistribution distance); Carmarthenshire (7.6% redistribution distance); Newport (9.5% redistribution distance); Isle of Anglesey (10.1% redistribution distance). Ranked across every published band in the Wales valuation system, this shortlist shows whether Bridgend stands alone or sits in a cluster of similarly shaped authorities.