About Council Tax

Property Bands and Charges

The amount of Council Tax you have to pay is based on the value of your home and the number of adults who live there.

How am I charged for Council Tax?

  • Council Tax is charged on a daily basis and an annual bill is sent covering each financial year starting on the 1 April
  • It will assume your circumstances as at 1 April will stay the same for the whole year
  • If your circumstances change during the year, the charge will be adjusted to reflect this

How is my property valued?

The value of your home is decided by the Valuation Office Agency, a branch of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and is based on its capital value in 1991. Even if it was built after that year, it will still be valued using 1991 values.

Each property is placed in one of eight valuation bands. They are:

Band Valuation
A up to £40,000
B £40,001 - £52,000
C £52,001 - £68,000
D £68,001 - £88,000
E £88,001 - £120,000
F £120,001 - £160,000
G £160,001 - £320,000
H over £320,000

Can I check that I'm in the correct band?

The band your property has been placed in will be shown on your bill. You can also check by going to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) website - this contains the bandings of every property in the country.

If the property has been altered or extended since 1991, the banding may have been affected.

If it has, the new banding will usually only come into force when the property is sold. The purchaser will then be liable for the new charge.  Any alterations to Council Tax bands is the responsibility of the Valuation Office Agency. More information about when bandings change can be found on the Gov.UK website.

For further information and to find out about making an appeal against your banding please go to the Appeal your council tax band website.

Your bill is based on the number of adults in the property

  • Your bill is based on the assumption that at least two adults, people aged 18 or over, live in your home.
  • If you are the only adult the bill should be reduced by 25%.
  • Even if you don't live alone your bill could still be reduced because we disregard some residents for Council Tax purposes.

See our Reductions (Discounts and Exemptions) Page for more information if you feel that we are counting too many adults in your property.

Your bill is based on the location of your property

The Council Tax charge varies slightly between parishes, depending on the level of charge set by the individual town and parish councils.

You can also see the band charges by Parish for previous years by downloading the PDFs below.