Most Expensive Band D Council Tax in the UK 2026-27
Dorset Council has the most expensive Band D council tax in the UK at £2,765.02, 18% above the £2,337.00 average
According to PlainCouncilTax's joined 2026-27 Band D corpus (MHCLG England, Scottish Government CTAS, Welsh Government), Dorset Council sets the highest charge among 350 billing authorities at £2,765.02, about 18% above the £2,337.00 authority-mean. The dearest 20 break down as 20 in England. Area Band D aggregates precepts; it is the reference rate, not the average household bill.
- £2,765.02 highest Band D
- 18% above UK mean
- 231 above-average authorities
Dorset Council has the most expensive council tax of any UK billing authority for 2026-27, with a Band D charge of £2,765.02, about 18% above the £2,337.00 average across the 350 authorities in our coverage set, of which 231 charge above that figure. The cheapest (Wandsworth, £1,028.21) is charged 2.69× less for the same band.
That average is the mean of the 350 authorities' Band D charges, counting each authority once. It is not the average household bill, which would weight authorities by how many properties they bill and count each property at its own band.
Ranking derived from our database of UK billing authority charges for the 2026-27 financial year. Last updated: . Data vintage: 2026-08-12.
The most expensive Band D councils (deep cut)
Cash, nation, and year-on-year change for the dearest authorities. For the Top 20 highest / Top 10 lowest overview that Google ranks, see the rankings hub. Ranks 1–10 below are the expensive-end cut; the table continues through rank 20.
| # | Council | Nation | Band D 2026-27 | YoY change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dorset Council | England | £2,765.02 | 5.12% |
| 2 | Lewes | England | £2,756.17 | 4.90% |
| 3 | City of Nottingham | England | £2,755.39 | 3.73% |
| 4 | Rutland | England | £2,737.58 | 2.49% |
| 5 | Wealden | England | £2,728.43 | 4.60% |
| 6 | Gateshead | England | £2,715.81 | 5.33% |
| 7 | Bristol | England | £2,713.68 | 5.02% |
| 8 | West Devon | England | £2,705.33 | 5.09% |
| 9 | Rother | England | £2,700.95 | 5.45% |
| 10 | Newark & Sherwood | England | £2,682.10 | 3.87% |
| 11 | Oxford | England | £2,678.40 | 4.74% |
| 12 | Hastings | England | £2,676.58 | 4.79% |
| 13 | Liverpool | England | £2,673.59 | 4.99% |
| 14 | Mid Devon | England | £2,656.41 | 5.36% |
| 15 | Eastbourne | England | £2,654.28 | 4.81% |
| 16 | Bassetlaw | England | £2,644.95 | 4.15% |
| 17 | Rushcliffe | England | £2,643.27 | 4.42% |
| 18 | Teignbridge | England | £2,643.12 | 5.18% |
| 19 | North Devon | England | £2,642.21 | 5.07% |
| 20 | Pendle | England | £2,640.18 | 4.14% |
What a high Band D does and does not tell you
Band D is the reference charge every other band is calculated from, so it is the only figure that compares like with like across authorities. It is not what most households pay: a Band A property pays 6/9 of it and a Band H property pays 18/9 in England and Wales, or 882/360 in Scotland following the 2017 reform. A council near the top of this list is expensive for a Band D home in that area, which is a different question from whether your own bill is high - that depends on your property's band, any discount, and stacked precepts.
The headline figure aggregates more than the council's own spending. It includes the adult social care precept where one applies, plus any police, fire, mayoral or parish precepts, so two authorities with similar own-component budgets can sit far apart here. The top 20 break down as 20 in England.
Annual increase arrangements differ by nation, financial year, and authority type. The area Band D total also includes relevant precepting-authority components, so a high value or large movement here is not, by itself, evidence that an authority exceeded its own threshold.
Methodology
This ranking sorts every billing authority in our coverage set by its 2026-27 area Band D charge, descending, and shows the 20 highest (the top-10 cut is ranks 1–10 of the same list). Values are loaded live from the councils table at request time; nothing on this page is hardcoded. Authorities without a published Band D figure are excluded. Source figures are the official 2026-27 levels: MHCLG for England (area Band D including all precepts), the Scottish Government's CTAS series for Scotland, and StatsWales for Wales. See our full methodology page for source attribution, data vintage, and column lineage.
Most expensive Band D questions
Which UK council has the most expensive Band D council tax?
Dorset Council has the most expensive Band D council tax in our 2026-27 coverage set at £2,765.02, about 18% above the £2,337.00 UK average across 350 billing authorities.
What does a high Band D charge include?
The area Band D total aggregates the billing authority's own component plus relevant precepts (police, fire, adult social care, parish where applicable). It is the reference rate other bands are calculated from, not the average household bill. The dearest 20 break down as 20 in England.
Where is the top-10 / top-20 highest council tax list?
The Top 20 highest and Top 10 lowest Band D overview lives on the rankings hub. This page is the Band D deep dive: cash figures, year-on-year change, and nation mix for the most expensive authorities (ranks 1–20 of the same sort, with the top-10 cut as rows 1–10).