Most landlords assume council tax is the tenant's problem, so the local rate never makes it into their sums. That holds right up until the flat sits empty between tenancies. The moment a property is unoccupied, the bill lands on you, and in 2026/27 the difference between the cheapest and dearest council in England is roughly £1,700 a year for the same Band D home. That is a real number worth knowing before you buy in a given postcode.
The 2026/27 picture: a £2,392 average hiding a huge spread
The average Band D council tax set by local authorities in England for 2026/27 is £2,392, an increase of £111 (4.9%) on the previous year, according to the government's official statistics (published March 2026). Most authorities with adult social care duties can raise bills by up to 5% without a local referendum (up to 2% for social care and 3% for everything else), though a handful were granted higher bespoke limits.
The average is the least interesting part. What matters for location decisions is the range. In 2026/27 a Band D household pays as little as £1,028 in the cheapest English council and as much as £2,765 in the dearest. That is a gap of £1,737 for an identical band of property, driven entirely by which side of a council boundary the front door sits on.
The cheapest Band D areas for 2026/27
London boroughs dominate the low end. The five cheapest billing authorities in England, sorted cheapest first:
| Rank | Council | Band D 2026/27 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wandsworth | £1,028 |
| 2 | Westminster | £1,050 |
| 3 | Hammersmith and Fulham | £1,520 |
| 4 | Kensington and Chelsea | £1,667 |
| 5 | Tower Hamlets | £1,838 |
The most expensive Band D areas for 2026/27
The dear end is spread across the South and East Midlands. The five most expensive, sorted dearest first:
| Rank | Council | Band D 2026/27 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dorset | £2,765 |
| 2 | Lewes | £2,756 |
| 3 | Nottingham | £2,755 |
| 4 | Rutland | £2,738 |
| 5 | Wealden | £2,728 |
A landlord with a Band D property in Dorset pays £1,737 more each year than the same landlord in Wandsworth. Across a long ownership, that is a five-figure difference in carrying costs for the periods you, not a tenant, are liable.
Why Band D, when most of your rentals are not Band D
Band D is the benchmark everyone quotes, but it is not the typical rental. Bands A to C account for nearly two-thirds of all dwellings in England, and a lot of buy-to-let stock sits in those lower bands. The bands are fixed ratios of Band D, so you can scale any headline figure to your own property:
- Band A: 6/9 of Band D (about 67%)
- Band B: 7/9 (about 78%)
- Band C: 8/9 (about 89%)
- Band D: the benchmark (100%)
- Band E: 11/9 (about 122%)
- Band F: 13/9 (about 144%)
- Band G: 15/9 (about 167%)
- Band H: 18/9 (200%)
So a Band A flat in Wandsworth costs roughly £685 for the year (£1,028 x 6/9), while a Band A flat in Dorset costs about £1,843. The ranking holds whatever band you own; only the absolute pounds change.
Where it actually bites: the void
Council tax becomes your bill the day a tenancy ends and the property sits empty. Some councils still grant a short discount or exemption on an unoccupied, unfurnished home, but many have scrapped it and charge the full rate from day one, so plan for the worst case. Leave a property empty too long and it gets worse: since 1 April 2024, councils in England have been able to apply an empty homes premium once a dwelling has stood empty for 12 months, rather than the previous two years (see the gov.uk guidance on council tax for empty properties). The exact discount, premium and start date vary by council, so confirm the policy in your specific area.
Worked example: the same 6-week void, two postcodes
Say you have a Band D flat and a tenant moves out. It takes six weeks (42 days) to refurbish, market and re-let. Council tax on a void is charged pro-rata by the day, so:
- Wandsworth: £1,028 / 365 = £2.82 a day. Over 42 days, about £118.
- England average: £2,392 / 365 = £6.55 a day. Over 42 days, about £275.
- Dorset: £2,765 / 365 = £7.58 a day. Over 42 days, about £318.
Same band, same six-week gap, but the Dorset landlord loses roughly £200 more than the Wandsworth one on council tax alone, on top of the lost rent. Have two or three voids across a portfolio in a year and the location premium compounds quickly. This is exactly the kind of cost that never shows up in a headline gross yield but quietly eats your net return.
What to do with this
None of this means buy only in cheap-council London, where purchase prices swallow the saving many times over. It means treat council tax as a running cost you can look up before you commit, not a surprise you meet at your first void.
Three practical moves:
- Check the actual 2026/27 Band D for the billing authority before you buy, and read across to your property's band using the ratios above.
- Budget a realistic void into your cashflow with the daily council tax figure included, not just lost rent.
- Ask the council directly what discount or exemption, if any, applies to an empty and unfurnished property, and from what date the empty homes premium would start.
This is general information, not tax or financial advice. Council tax rules, discounts and premiums are set locally and change each year, so verify the current figures with your billing authority before relying on them.
