Highest Band H Council Tax 2026-27

Rank UK authorities by calculated 2026-27 Band H Council Tax using each nation's statutory multiplier and published Band D rate.

Research period:

Compiled by PlainCouncilTax on 2026-05-17
Dorset Council: £5,530.04

Dorset Council has the highest Band H Council Tax in the UK for 2026-27 at £5,530.04, ahead of Lewes (£5,512.34). Band H is the top band in England and Scotland, charged at 18/9 of the council-set Band D rate (Scotland uses a higher 2017 ratio); Wales adds a Band I above it.

Research question

Across the United Kingdom, which billing authorities charge the highest Band H Council Tax, once each nation's own Band H ratio (18/9 in England and Wales, 882/360 in Scotland since 2017) is applied to the council-set Band D rate?

Methodology

Every numeric value on this page is pulled live from PlainCouncilTax's current dataset and ranked accordingly, no figure is hardcoded, and the ranking refreshes automatically whenever the underlying source agency dataset is updated.

Band D charges are the headline rate each billing authority sets for the 2026-27 financial year, sourced from MHCLG (England), the Scottish Government, and Welsh Government / StatsWales. Councils that publish no Band D figure, or where a value is suppressed, are excluded rather than shown as zero. Rankings, averages and year-on-year changes are our own analysis of that source data, distinct from the publishers' own figures.

This page is compiled automatically from the live database; it is not reviewed by a named editor. Every value can be traced to its council via the source link and the methodology page, and a corrected figure is fixed at source so every affected page updates on the next rebuild.

See the methodology page for the full source vintage and refresh history.

Top 20 UK Councils by Band H Council Tax 2026-27

Live data, updates automatically when the source dataset is refreshed

1. Dorset Council5,530.042. Lewes5,512.343. City of Nottingham5,510.784. Rutland5,475.165. Wealden5,456.866. Gateshead5,431.627. Bristol5,427.368. West Devon5,410.669. Rother5,401.910. Newark & Sherwood5,364.211. Oxford5,356.812. Hastings5,353.1613. Liverpool5,347.1814. Mid Devon5,312.8215. Eastbourne5,308.5616. Bassetlaw5,289.917. Rushcliffe5,286.5418. Teignbridge5,286.2419. North Devon5,284.4220. Pendle5,280.36

Band D vs Band H side-by-side for the same top-10 councils

Band H is exactly 18/9 (2.0×) the Band D rate per Local Government Finance Act 1992. This makes the multiplier visible per council.

1. Dorset Council (H)5,530.042. Lewes (H)5,512.343. City of Nottingham (H)5,510.784. Rutland (H)5,475.165. Wealden (H)5,456.866. Gateshead (H)5,431.627. Bristol (H)5,427.368. West Devon (H)5,410.669. Rother (H)5,401.910. Newark & Sherwood (H)5,364.211. Oxford (H)5,356.812. Hastings (H)5,353.1613. Liverpool (H)5,347.1814. Mid Devon (H)5,312.8215. Eastbourne (H)5,308.5616. Bassetlaw (H)5,289.917. Rushcliffe (H)5,286.5418. Teignbridge (H)5,286.2419. North Devon (H)5,284.4220. Pendle (H)5,280.36

The ranked top 20

Every row below reflects PlainCouncilTax's current dataset (20 rows shown). When the source is refreshed, this table updates automatically.

# Council Band H 2026-27 (£) Band D 2026-27 (£) Country
1 Dorset Council 5,530.04 2,765.02 England
2 Lewes 5,512.34 2,756.17 England
3 City of Nottingham 5,510.78 2,755.39 England
4 Rutland 5,475.16 2,737.58 England
5 Wealden 5,456.86 2,728.43 England
6 Gateshead 5,431.62 2,715.81 England
7 Bristol 5,427.36 2,713.68 England
8 West Devon 5,410.66 2,705.33 England
9 Rother 5,401.9 2,700.95 England
10 Newark & Sherwood 5,364.2 2,682.1 England
11 Oxford 5,356.8 2,678.4 England
12 Hastings 5,353.16 2,676.58 England
13 Liverpool 5,347.18 2,673.59 England
14 Mid Devon 5,312.82 2,656.41 England
15 Eastbourne 5,308.56 2,654.28 England
16 Bassetlaw 5,289.9 2,644.95 England
17 Rushcliffe 5,286.54 2,643.27 England
18 Teignbridge 5,286.24 2,643.12 England
19 North Devon 5,284.42 2,642.21 England
20 Pendle 5,280.36 2,640.18 England

Source: MHCLG, Scottish Government, Welsh Government / StatsWales annual Band D tables with statutory Band H multipliers; rankings calculated by PlainCouncilTax.

Findings

Top entity in the ranking

The top-ranked record in this dataset is Dorset Council, with a value of 5,530.04 on the Band H 2026-27 (£) column. The full top-20 set is rendered in the table above. No number on this page is hardcoded, when MHCLG, Scottish Government, Welsh Government / StatsWales publishes a revision, the ranking and the prose around it update automatically.

Distribution shape

The gap between the top-ranked record (5,530.04) and the 20th-ranked record (5,280.36) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-20 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.

Aggregate context

Across the full councils population, the aggregate query returns the following summary statistics. These anchors situate the top-20 ranking against the underlying population: how many records exist in total, what the sum of the ranking column is across all qualifying rows, and what the mean per-record value looks like. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied by the aggregate query (records with null or zero values on the ranking column are excluded). The aggregate row is computed by the same database engine that renders the ranking above, against the same snapshot.

Source provenance

The records in this ranking originate from the source agency, specifically the primary dataset. PlainCouncilTax ingests the source vintage published by the agency and serves it from its current dataset, there is no static export carrying stale numbers, and a newly published source vintage propagates to this page automatically. The methodology page documents the source URL, the vintage date, and how the figures are compiled.

Why this ranking matters

Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.

What this analysis cannot tell us

Band H covers properties valued over £320,000 at the 1991 valuation date. The vast majority of UK domestic properties fall in lower bands; Band H typically represents less than 1% of housing stock per council. Therefore the Band H figure is high-end and applies to a relatively small population of expensive properties. The Band H ratio is statutory: 18/9 of Band D in England and Wales, but 882/360 (≈2.45×) in Scotland following the April 2017 reform. Within each nation the ratio is uniform, so variation in Band H charges across councils of the same nation reflects the variation in council-set Band D rates, while Scottish authorities carry an additional uplift at the top bands. Welsh Council Tax additionally has Band I (21/9 of Band D) for properties valued over £424,000 in the 2003 Welsh revaluation. Properties straddling England-Wales borders are assigned to a single billing authority and use that authority's band schedule.

Related data

    Sources