Watford Council Tax 2026
East of England, England · 43,480 domestic properties
Watford Band D is £2,446.70 for 2026-27, the 148th highest of 350 UK billing authorities (5% above the UK average of £2,337.00).
According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, Watford's published Band D Council Tax is £2,446.70 for 2026-27 (OVER). Competition rank is 148th of 350 (higher than 58% of authorities).
- £2,446.70 Band D · OVER
- 148th of 350 authorities
- +4.7% vs UK average
According to MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026-27, Watford's Band D Council Tax is £2,446.70 for 2026-27 (OVER), the 148th highest of 350 UK billing authorities (higher than 58% of them) and 5% 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.
- £2,446.70
- Band D charge · 2026 statutory
- Above the UK average
- +4.41%
- year-on-year vs £2,343.38
- Lower-quarter rise
- +4.7%
- vs UK avg £2,337.00
- £4,893.40
- Band H · 18/9 of Band D
Watford · year-on-year Band D
What changed for Watford
Watford's Band D Council Tax rose from £2,343.38 (2025-26) to £2,446.70 (2026-27). Among 350 billing authorities by percentage rise, it ranks 265.
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
Watford 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.
- £2,446.70 Published Band D 2026-27 OVER
- 148th of 350 UK authorities 58th percentile
- +4.4% Year-on-year Band D MID
- 43,480 VOA dwellings on list BALANCED
Band D charge neighbourhood
Published 2026-27 Band D among the nearest pound-gap peers (snapshot 2026-10-02).
Derived position reading
What the Watford Band D figure shows
The published Band D charge of £2,446.70 places Watford 148th 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 4.7% above the simple UK average of £2,337.00, while the percentile shows that 58% of the recorded authorities have a lower Band D charge.
The more useful local comparison is East of England. Here, Watford ranks 15th among 45 billing authorities, against a regional average of £2,391.00. 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.
Watford bands A-H schedule
Per-band charge 2026
Band A–H charge table (2026/2027)
| Band | Annual Charge | Monthly | Sole occupant (−25%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,631.13 | £163.11 | £1,223.35 |
| B | £1,902.99 | £190.30 | £1,427.24 |
| C | £2,174.84 | £217.48 | £1,631.13 |
| D | £2,446.70 | £244.67 | £1,835.02 |
| E | £2,990.41 | £299.04 | £2,242.81 |
| F | £3,534.12 | £353.41 | £2,650.59 |
| G | £4,077.83 | £407.78 | £3,058.37 |
| H | £4,893.40 | £489.34 | £3,670.05 |
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 Watford's 43,480 properties actually pay
Watford's housing stock peaks below the reference point, in Band C, which covers 16,030 of 43,480 dwellings (36.9%). 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 BALANCED: 48.3% of dwellings here are banded below D.
Stock-weighted average £2,462.58 is £15.88 (0.6%) above Band D £2,446.70 - 78th of 318 authorities with published counts (corpus mean £2,269.00). That places Watford 13th of the 45 billing authorities in East of England, above the regional median of £2,255.65.
Watford property mix · A–C / D / E–H · BALANCED
Sums to 43,480 VOA dwellings, band mix, not a household bill.
Closest housing-stock shape: Sutton
Sutton is the nearest available full-distribution peer for Watford, although the match is not tight. Aligning the two published profiles would require 9.4% 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 is an upper-band difference at Band E. Sutton records 15.0% of dwellings there, compared with 9.0% in Watford, so the peer carries more of its stock at that higher rung.
- Another material separation falls on the reference band itself. Band D contains 33.0% of Watford's stock but 28.7% of Sutton's, so the national headline describes more of the local distribution here.
- Another material separation is lower on the ladder at Band C: Watford has 36.9% of dwellings there, against 32.9% in Sutton. That extra lower-band weight pulls its stock profile away from the peer.
- Another material separation is an upper-band difference at Band F. Sutton records 8.2% of dwellings there, compared with 5.1% in Watford, so the peer carries more of its stock at that higher rung.
Other close England matches for Watford: Rochford (10.6% redistribution distance); Merton (10.7% redistribution distance); Havering (11.2% redistribution distance); Brent (11.8% redistribution distance).
| Band | Properties | Share of stock | Annual charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 450 | 1.0% | £1,631.13 |
| B | 4,530 | 10.4% | £1,902.99 |
| C | 16,030 | 36.9% | £2,174.84 |
| D | 14,340 | 33.0% | £2,446.70 |
| E | 3,900 | 9.0% | £2,990.41 |
| F | 2,220 | 5.1% | £3,534.12 |
| G | 1,930 | 4.4% | £4,077.83 |
| H | 80 | 0.2% | £4,893.40 |
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 Watford on stock-weighted charge (BALANCED) - a different ordering from Band D twins.
- Arun£2,466.95
- Barnet£2,466.90
- North Yorkshire£2,464.41
- Havering£2,458.22
- Broxbourne£2,456.10
Watford's nearest year-on-year movers · MID
Watford moved Band D from £2,343.38 to £2,446.70 (+4.41%, MID; competition rank 265th of 350). Closest published movements: Erewash, Swansea, Rugby.
- Erewash4.45%
- Swansea4.45%
- Rugby4.42%
- Rushcliffe4.42%
- Stratford-on-Avon4.38%
- Reigate & Banstead4.37%
How Watford compares in East of England
Among the 45 billing authorities in East of England, Watford's 2026-27 Band D charge of £2,446.70 ranks 15th of 45, higher than 67% of them (£55.70 above the East of England average of £2,391.00). Its nearest-charged neighbours in the region:
| Region rank | Council | Band D 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| 13th | Welwyn Hatfield | £2,452.26 |
| 14th | North Hertfordshire | £2,448.52 |
| 15th | Watford | £2,446.70 |
| 16th | Breckland | £2,443.67 |
| 17th | Luton | £2,439.93 |
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.
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 Watford: district charge plus county, police, fire where separate, and the average parish precept across the district. For a binding figure consult your Watford 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 Watford are the area Band D and statutory band multiples, already including county, police, fire and average parish precepts where they apply.