Is your council tax fair?
Council tax bands were fixed on 1991 values and have never been revalued in England, so the bill bears less and less relation to what a home is actually worth. Measured as a share of value, the system is steeply regressive — cheaper homes pay a far higher percentage than expensive ones. Every dot below is an authority; find yours.
The average council tax charge in Burnley (homes ~£105,000) is £1,952 a year. In Kensington and Chelsea (homes ~£1,171,000) it's £2,316 — a similar charge on a home worth ~11× more. Council tax is regressive; here's every authority.
Home value → · council tax as % of value ↑
City of London is plotted hollow and left out of the rankings: too few homes change hands there for the median value — and so the rate — to mean much (the City of London has ~15,000 residents in a working district of hundreds of thousands).
From the average charge, not a reference band
Effective rate = the average council-tax charge ÷ the median home value (HM Land Registry). The charge isn't a single reference band — it's the average across the area's whole housing stock, with every council tax band weighted by how many homes are actually in it (from the Valuation Office band distribution). It's the full charge before discounts — the single-person discount and low-income reductions mean the bill many households actually pay is lower — but it's a consistent, like-for-like measure of the council-tax burden on property. The spread is stark: Burnley sits near 1.859%, Kensington and Chelsea near 0.198%. A wrong band makes your own rate worse still — the free address check tells you if yours is.
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Sources: Valuation Office Agency band-D charges + HM Land Registry median prices, OGL v3.0. 311 authorities with both figures. Estimate.
The data behind this tool
Council tax is regressive against value: in Burnley the average home pays about 1.859% of its value each year, against 0.198% in pricier Kensington and Chelsea.
- Most regressive: Burnley — 1.859% of a £105,000 median home.
- Least regressive: Kensington and Chelsea — 0.198% of a £1,171,000 median home.
- Cheaper areas pay a higher share of value because bands are frozen at 1991.
| Area | Effective rate | Median price |
|---|---|---|
| Burnley | 1.859% | £105,000 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 0.198% | £1,171,000 |
Source: Derived from VOA charges + HM Land Registry median prices (Open Government Licence v3.0).