Council Tax Data

Property distributions, tax rates, revenue-neutral scenario modelling, and policy analysis for every local authority in England and Wales.

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How Council Tax Works

Banding system: Properties are assigned to one of eight bands (A to H) in England, or nine (A to I) in Wales, based on estimated values at a fixed date: 1 April 1991 for England, 1 April 2003 for Wales. England has never been revalued.

Fixed ratios: Tax liability varies by band according to set ratios relative to Band D. Band A pays 6/9 of the Band D amount; Band H pays 18/9 (twice). The ratio between highest and lowest is 3:1, regardless of actual property values; a property worth twenty times more than another pays at most three times as much.

Local variation: Each authority sets its own Band D rate annually. Amounts vary significantly between councils, but the relative burden across bands is fixed nationally.

Policy evaluation: The IFS (Adam et al., 2020) has shown that frozen 1991 valuations cause substantial divergence between liability and current values, particularly where prices have risen fastest. The Mirrlees Review (2011) recommended moving towards an annually revalued proportional property tax.

Revenue-Neutral Proportional Rate

Each council page models what a proportional annual tax on current property values would look like for that authority, calibrated to raise the same revenue as current Council Tax. This is an analytical scenario showing how the tax burden would be redistributed across bands, not a policy proposal. The methodology is set out on each council page.

Strengths and Weaknesses

An assessment of Council Tax across administrative practicality, distributional effects, and incentive effects, drawing on the academic and institutional literature.

Strengths

Administrative simplicity and revenue stability

Council Tax is operationally cheap to run. Band determinations are largely a one-off exercise, so collection costs are very low relative to revenue raised and local authorities can budget on the basis of a predictable, stable yield. The system has proved durable; broadly unchanged since replacing the Community Charge in 1993.

Targeted relief mechanisms

The system includes built-in protections: a 25% single-occupier discount, full exemptions for students and the severely mentally impaired, and Council Tax Support through which authorities can reduce or eliminate liability for low-income households. These are administered locally, giving councils flexibility to tailor relief.

No disincentive to transaction

As an annual holding tax, Council Tax creates no direct financial barrier to moving; unlike SDLT, it does not contribute to the lock-in effects documented in the transaction-tax literature. This is an underappreciated structural advantage.

Weaknesses

Regressivity of the band structure

The 3:1 band ratio (Band A to Band H) is the most significant structural feature. Adam et al. (IFS, 2020) documented the regressivity systematically: Council Tax as a share of current property value falls steeply as value rises. A property worth twenty times another pays at most three times as much. The burden falls most heavily on occupiers of lower-value properties relative to their asset; difficult to defend from the principles of horizontal or vertical equity.

Frozen valuations disconnected from current values

England's banding, established on estimated 1991 values, has never been revalued. Over thirty years of differential house price growth means banding no longer reflects relative values in any systematic way; the divergence is largest in London and the South East. The IFS has noted the tax no longer achieves even its original, modest value-proportionality. Wales was revalued in 2003 and given a ninth band (I); England's failure to follow suit compounds over time.

Political obstacles to reform

The path to reform is exceptionally difficult. Any revaluation would produce large bill increases in rapidly appreciating areas, and reductions elsewhere. Long-tenure owner-occupiers on fixed incomes face a genuine distributional problem without compensating relief. This creates an enduring political barrier; the analytical case, well established in the Mirrlees Review and subsequent IFS work, has not translated into legislative action. The frozen base is not merely a technical failure but an institutional one.