Council tax vs local pay
Fairness measures council tax against what a home is worth. Affordability measures it against what people earn. Across England & Wales the same bill swallows wildly different shares of a local pay packet — in Tandridge about 7.9%, in Wandsworth nearer 2.1%. It's the sharpest cost-of-living read on the tax; find your area.
In Tandridge, council tax takes about 7.9% of a typical local pay packet (£39,775). In Wandsworth it's 2.1% — the same tax bites very differently by income. Find your area.
Local pay → · council tax as % of pay ↑
Share of typical local full-time pay
Affordability = the average council-tax charge ÷ the median gross annual pay of full-time workers who live in the area (ONS ASHE, residence-based, 2025). It's a consistent affordability indicator, not a household-budget figure: the charge is the full amount before the single-person discount and low-income reductions, and ASHE counts full-time earners — so it understates the squeeze where many residents are pensioners or part-time (council tax hits non-earners too). The Band-D toggle standardises the comparison. Paying a lot for your area? A wrong band makes it worse — the free address check tells you if yours is.
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Sources: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (resident, 2025) + VOA council-tax charges, OGL v3.0. 311 authorities. Estimate.
The data behind this tool
Council tax takes about 5.7% of full-time resident earnings across England & Wales, but the squeeze is uneven — from 2.1% to 7.9% by area.
- Most squeezed: Tandridge — 7.9% of local pay (£3,144 bill).
- Most comfortable: Wandsworth — 2.1% of local pay.
- National average: 5.7% of full-time earnings (ASHE 2025).
| Area | Share of pay | Avg charge |
|---|---|---|
| Tandridge | 7.9% | £3,144 |
| Wandsworth | 2.1% | £1,149 |
Source: Derived from VOA charges + ONS ASHE resident earnings (Open Government Licence v3.0).