National statistics

Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2023 to 2024 (revised)

Updated 4 March 2024

Applies to England

This release contains information on the council tax levels set by local authorities in England, and associated data. The release was originally published on the 23 March 2023, with minor revisions to Table 1 and Table 5 made in this release following the validation of the individual parish level data.

1. In this release:

  • The average Band D council tax set by local authorities in England for 2023-24 will be £2,065, which is an increase of £99 or 5.1% on the 2022-23 figure of £1,966. This includes all precepts including adult social care and parish precepts.

  • In 2023-24, of 153 adult social care authorities, 151 will utilise some or all of their adult social care precept flexibility when setting their council tax. The maximum flexibility is 2%. This additional flexibility accounts for £30 of the average Band D council tax bill.

  • The average area Band D council tax will be £1,789 across London (an increase of £105 or 6.2% when compared to 2022-23), £2,059 in metropolitan areas (+£99 or 5.1%), and on a like-for-like basis, £2,139 (+£103 or 5.0%) in unitary areas and £2,134 (+£94 or 5.0%) in shire areas.

  • The council tax requirement in 2023-24 is £38.7 billion, of which £561 million (1.4%) will be raised through the adult social care precept, and £708 million (1.8%) will be raised through parish precepts.

  • For those areas where parishes charge a precept, there has been an average Band D parish precept increase of 6.1% in 2023-24.

  • The average council tax per dwelling will be £1,578 in 2023-24.

Release date: 19 May 2023 (originally published 23 March 2023)

Date of next release: March 2024

Contact: 0303 444 2141 ctr.statistics@levellingup.gov.uk (Responsible Statistician: Jo Coleman)

Media enquiries: 0303 444 1209 NewsDesk@levellingup.gov.uk

2. Introduction

This release has been compiled by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and presents National Statistics on council tax levels set by local authorities in England and associated information for the financial year 2023-24. This information is derived from the council tax requirement (CTR) returns submitted during February and March 2023 by all 296 billing authorities and all 95 major precepting authorities in England that will be in effect from 1 April 2023. The release was originally published on the 23 March 2023, with minor revisions relating to the parish precept in Table 1, and parish precept and precepting parish taxbase in Table 5 following the validation of the individual parish level data.

Council tax is the main source of locally raised income for many local authorities. It was introduced in April 1993 and the amount of council tax payable on a property depends in part on the council tax band to which it is allocated (see Technical notes document).

Band D council tax is the standard measure of council tax (all other bands are set as a proportion of the Band D) and is the council tax payable on a Band D dwelling occupied as a main residence by at least two adults. The average Band D council tax in this release is determined by dividing the council tax requirement by the tax base for council tax setting purposes, which accounts for any reductions due to discounts, exemptions or local council tax support schemes. Council tax can also be measured in average council tax per dwelling terms (see Section 5).

The council tax bill may be made up of several elements. In addition to the council tax for the billing authority responsible for the area, it may include council tax that is collected for some or all of the following categories of authority; county council (the Greater London Authority in London), fire and rescue authority, police & crime commissioner, combined authority, and parish or other local precepting council.

3. Special Factors in 2023-24

There are several special factors which may have affected the decisions of local authorities when setting their council tax levels for 2023-24. These special factors are:

3.1 Adult social care

In 2023-24 adult social care authorities are able to increase council tax by an additional 2 per cent. This is in addition to the usual funding of adult social care through council tax. This applies to London boroughs (including the City of London), county councils, metropolitan districts, and unitary authorities.

3.2 Local Government reorganisation

Following local government reorganisation, from 1 April 2023:

  • Four new unitary authorities will come into existence. These are:

  • Cumberland Council (replacing Allerdale, Carlisle, and Copeland district councils, and a share of Cumbria County Council),

  • North Yorkshire Council (replacing Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough, and Selby district councils, and North Yorkshire County Council),

  • Somerset Council (replacing Mendip, Sedgemoor, Somerset West and Taunton, and South Somerset district councils, and Somerset County Council),

  • Westmorland and Furness Council (replacing Barrow, Eden, and South Lakeland district councils, and a share of Cumbria County Council)

  • Cumbria Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner has assumed the functions of Fire and Rescue that was previously the responsibility of Cumbria County Council.

3.3 Referendum principles

Authorities are required to hold a referendum if their relevant basic amount of council tax (i.e. the average Band D figure having excluded local precepts) for 2023-24 is in excess of the council tax referendum principles which apply to them.

The referendum principles are:

  • 5% or more than 5% (comprising up to a maximum of 2% for expenditure on adult social care and 3% on other expenditure) for authorities with responsibility for adult social care services.

  • 5% or more than 5% (comprising up to a maximum of 2% for expenditure on adult social care and 3% on other expenditure) for unitarising authorities with responsibility for adult social care services which are equalising difference council tax levels across their predecessor areas. The principle may be applied to either the increase in each individual predecessor area, or to the tax base-weighted average band D figure of all the predecessor areas.

  • More than £5, or 3% or more than 3%, (the greater of the two) for district councils in 2 tier areas.

  • More than £15 for Police and Crime Commissioners.

  • More than £15 for the police component of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and The West Yorkshire Combined Authority precept.

  • More than £5 for fire and rescue authorities.

  • More than £38.55 for the adjusted relevant basic amount of council tax of the GLA.

  • More than £23.55 for the unadjusted relevant basic amount of council tax of the GLA.

  • 15% or more than 15% (comprising of up to a maximum of 2% for expenditure on adult social care and 13% on other expenditure) for Croydon Borough Council.

  • 10% or more than 10% (comprising of up to a maximum of 2% for expenditure on adult social care and 8% on other expenditure) for Slough and Thurrock Councils.

No referendum principles were set for mayoral combined authorities or local precepting authorities (parish or town councils, chairmen of parish meetings, charter trustees and the treasurers of the Inner and Middle Temples of London).

3.4 Localisation of council tax support

The localisation of council tax support introduced in 2013-14 allows authorities to amend their scheme each year if they wish, which may have affected their council tax requirement for 2023-24 (see Definitions section in the accompanying Technical Notes document).

4. Calculation of council tax in England, 2023-24

Council tax levels are calculated by dividing the council tax requirement by the tax base for tax setting purposes. The council tax requirement represents how much revenue councils have agreed is needed to be met through council tax. The tax base is the number of Band D equivalent dwellings in the authority determined for tax setting purposes for the year ahead. There are several factors affecting comparability of some figures from year to year, including the referendum principles that are set each year. See the Introduction section for more information.

Table 1 gives a breakdown of the council tax level for England for 2023-24.

  • The average Band D council tax set by local authorities in England for 2023-24 is £2,065, which is an increase of £99 or 5.1% on the 2022-23 figure of £1,966. This includes adult social care and parish precepts.

  • The council tax requirement (including adult social care and parish precepts) in 2023-24 is £38.7 billion, £2.4 billion higher when compared with 2022-23.

  • Parish precepts in 2023-24 will total £708 million which is £53 million higher than in 2022-23.

  • The total tax base used for setting council tax for 2023-24 was 18.7 million Band D equivalent dwellings.

Table 1: Calculating council tax levels: England summary 2019-20 to 2023-24

Year 2019 to 2020 2020 to 2021 2021 to 2022 2022 to 2023 2023 to 2024 [r]
Council tax requirement including adult social care precept, excluding parish precepts (£ millions) [note a] 30,894 32,544 33,819 35,658 38,011
Parish precepts (£ millions) 554 596 618 655 708
Council tax requirement including adult social care and parish precepts (£ millions) 31,448 33,141 34,437 36,313 38,718
Taxbase for council tax setting purposes (millions) 17.972 18.232 18.139 18.473 18.749
Average Band D council tax including adult social care, excluding parish precepts (£) 1,719 1,785 1,864 1,930 2,027
Average Band D council tax including adult social care and parish precepts (£) 1,750 1,818 1,898 1,966 2,065

Footnotes for Table 1

[note a] Since 2016-17 social care authorities have been able to increase council tax under the social care precept, as well as under the core council tax referendum principle. Local authorities were given the flexibility to increase council tax by up to 3% a year in 2017-18 and 2018-19 and increase by up to 2% in 2019-20, while being capped at a maximum total of 6 percentage points rise over the period 2017-18 to 2019-20. In 2020-21 adult social care authorities were able to increase council tax by an additional 2 per cent to fund adult social care. In 2021-22 and 2022-23 adult social care authorities were able to increase council tax by an additional 3 per cent over the two years to fund adult social care, with no limitation as to how this is split between the two years. But for 2022-23, the additional amount was then set as a 1 per cent increase plus any amount of the 3% that had not been used in 2021-22 because the authority had planned to defer it to 2022-23. In 2023-24, authorities were able to increase the adult social care precept by up to 2%.

[r] The parish precept data has had a minor revision following the validation of the individual parish data. The revision has had a negligible effect on the average Band D including parish precept figure.

Table 2 shows average Band D council tax levels for England as a whole and by class of authority, along with the percentage change over the corresponding figure for 2022-23. This is shown including adult social care precept only (column 1 & 2) and including both adult social care and parish precepts (column 3 & 4).

Due to reorganisations, the percentage change figures for unitary authorities, shire districts and shire counties have been calculated on a like-for-like basis. (This means that an estimate for 2022-23 has been calculated on the basis of the 2023-24 structure). It was not possible to do this for the fire and rescue aggregate.

Table 2 shows:

  • London boroughs have an increase in average Band D council tax of 5.1% (including adult social care and excluding parish precepts).

  • Metropolitan districts have an increase of 4.7% for average Band D council tax (including adult social care and excluding parish precepts).

  • Unitary authorities have an increase of 5.0% in their average Band D council tax (including adult social care and excluding parish precepts) on a like-for-like basis.

  • Shire counties will see an increase of 5.0% in their average Band D council tax (including adult social care) on a like-for-like basis.

  • Shire districts will see an increase of 3.0% (excluding parish precepts) on a like-for-like basis due to referendum principles which allowed some authorities to set an increase of £5 or 3%.

  • Police and crime commissioners will see an increase of 6.2% (£14.88) due to referendum principles which allowed these authorities to set an increase of up to £15.

  • Fire and rescue authorities are increasing their average Band D council tax by 6.3% due to referendum principles which allowed these authorities to set an increase of up to £5.

Table 2: Council tax (average Band D) in England 2023-24, and percentage change from 2022-23: by class of authority

Class of Authority Average council tax for the authority including adult social care precept, excluding parish precepts (Band D) £ Percentage change of average council tax for the authority including adult social care precept, excluding parish precepts (Band D) % Average council tax for the authority including adult social care and including parish precepts (Band D) £ Percentage change of average council tax for the authority including adult social care and including parish precepts (Band D) %
England 2,027 5.0% 2,065 5.1%
Inner London boroughs including City 1,086 4.3% 1,086 4.3%
Outer London boroughs 1,530 5.6% 1,530 5.6%
London boroughs 1,355 5.1% 1,356 5.1%
Greater London Authority [note a] 434 9.7% 434 9.7%
of which The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime 292 5.4% 292 5.4%
of which other services 142 19.9% 142 19.9%
Combined authorities [note b] [note c] 64 - 64 -
Metropolitan districts 1,736 4.7% 1,744 4.7%
Metropolitan fire and rescue authorities 80 6.6% 80 6.6%
Shire unitary authorities [note d] 1,733 5.0% 1,793 5.0%
Shire counties [note d] 1,565 5.0% 1,565 5.0%
Shire districts [note d] 204 3.0% 256 3.0%
Shire fire and rescue authorities [note e] 87 6.1% 87 6.1%
Police and crime commissioners [note f] 255 6.2% 255 6.2%
Fire and rescue authorities [note e] [note g] 86 6.3% 86 6.3%

Footnotes for Table 2

[note a] This includes core GLA, Transport for London (TfL), The London Legacy Development Corporation, the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA); and The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime.

[note b] Three (Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority (CA), Liverpool City Region CA, and the Greater Manchester CA) out of the eight combined authorities set a precept in 2023-24. As this was the first time that a precept had been set by Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, no percentage change has been calculated.

[note c] For Greater Manchester Combined Authority, this reflects only the precept for their general functions which includes their responsibility for fire and rescue services.

[note d] The year-on-year percentage change has been calculated as if Cumberland Council, North Yorkshire Council, Somerset Council and Westmorland and Furness Council had been in existence in 2022-23 to allow for like-for-like comparisons at class level.

[note e] It has not been possible to calculate a like-for-like comparison to reflect move of fire and rescue responsibilities from Cumbria County council arising from the 2023-24 reorganisation.

[note f] Does not include the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime element from GLA and excludes City of London Police (as this element is not distinguishable from the council tax charged by the City of London). Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s and West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s police function are included.

[note g] Covers both metropolitan and shire and fire rescue authorities. It excludes fire and rescue services provided by counties, unitaries, GLA and Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Table 3 and Chart A give figures for, levels of, and changes in, the average Band D council tax (including parish precepts) for England for the last 14 years.

Table 3: Average Band D council tax (including parish and adult social care precepts) in England and the annual percentage change 2010-11 to 2023-24

Year Pounds £ Percentage Change [note a] %
2010 to 2011 1,439 1.8
2011 to 2012 [note b] 1,439 0.0
2012 to 2013 [note b] 1,444 0.3
2013 to 2014 [note b] 1,456 0.8
2014 to 2015 [note b] 1,468 0.8
2015 to 2016 [note b] 1,484 1.1
2016 to 2017 [note c] 1,530 3.1
2017 to 2018 1,591 4.0
2018 to 2019 1,671 5.1
2019 to 2020 1,750 4.7
2020 to 2021 1,818 3.9
2021 to 2022 1,898 4.4
2022 to 2023 [note d] 1,966 3.5
2023 to 2024 2,065 5.1

Footnotes for Table 3

[note a] Referendum principles vary year to year which will affect the annual change. Please see the introduction section of the statistical release for further information.

[note b] Freeze grant was paid to local authorities that froze or reduced council tax between 2011-12 to 2015-16.

[note c] Local authorities have been given flexibility to increase council tax by an additional amount to fund adult social care since 2016-17. The amount of flexibility has varied from year to year.

[note d] In 2022-23, the Government provided a £150 one-off Energy Bills Rebate for most households in council tax bands A-D. This did not affect these figures.

Chart A: Average Band D council tax in England percentage change 2010-11 to 2023-24 (including parish and adult social care precepts) [note a] [note b]

See Accompanying Tables and Open Data to download the chart data.

Footnotes for Chart A

[note a] Referendum principles vary year to year which will affect the annual change. Please see the introduction section of the statistical release for further information.

[note b] Freeze grants were paid to local authorities that froze or reduced council tax between 2011-12 and 2015-16.

5. Adult Social Care Precept

Local authorities with adult social care responsibilities have been able to increase council tax by up to an additional 2% in 2023-24. This precept applies to London boroughs (including the City of London), county councils, metropolitan districts, and unitary authorities. Table 4 shows the number of authorities using some, or all, of this year’s adult social care precept flexibility and how much additional council tax was raised through it.

  • The additional adult social care precept flexibility in 2023-24 will generate £561 million.

  • Of 153 authorities with adult social care responsibilities, 151 utilised some, or all, of their precept flexibility for 2023-24.

  • The adult social care precept flexibility in 2023-24 accounts for £30, or 1.6%, of the average Band D council tax bill.

Table 4: Average Band D council tax precept for adult social care in 2023-24 [note a]

Year 2019 to 2020 2020 to 2021 2021 to 2022 2022 to 2023 2023 to 2024
Number of authorities with adult social care responsibilities 151 151 152 152 153
Number of authorities utilising some or all of the adult social care precept [note b] 85 151 148 150 151
Total amount raised through the adult social care precept (£ million) [note c] 200 497 611 408 561
Tax base for council tax setting purposes (millions) 17.972 18.232 18.139 18.473 18.749
Average Band D council tax attributable to adult social care precept (£) [note c] 11.15 27.27 33.66 22.08 29.94

Footnotes in Table 4

[note a] Social care authorities can increase council tax under the adult social care precept, as well as under the core council tax referendum principle. The adult social care precept increase was up to 3 per cent a year in 2017-18 and 2018-19 and an increase by up to 2 per cent in 2019-20, while being capped at a maximum total of 6 percentage points rise over the period 2017-18 to 2019-20. In 2020-21 the increase could be up to 2 per cent. In 2021-22 and 2022-23 adult social care authorities were able to increase council tax by an additional 3 per cent over the two years to fund adult social care, with no limitation as to how this is split between the two years. But for 2022-23, the additional amount was then set as a 1 per cent increase plus any amount of the 3% that had not been used in 2021-22 because the authority had planned to defer it to 2022-23. In 2023-24, authorities were able to increase the adult social care precept by up to 2%.

[note b] Islington has been included in the figure for 2019-20, as they utilised the social care precept, although their precept element appeared as £0.00.

[note c] All increases to council tax, whether or not attributable social care precept, become the new baseline for increases for the following year. As a result, these figures do not reflect the full amounts in 2023-24 that follow from increases to council tax levels as a result of the social care precept. This is because full extent of the element within both i) council tax bills and ii) council tax receipts in 2023-24 that is attributable to the social care precept requires a cumulative calculation of each local authority’s decisions on the use of the social care precept in each year since its inception in 2016-17.

6. Parishes and other local precepting authorities in England

Table 5 shows information relating to parishes and other local precepting authorities and the precepts they raise. Not all areas have parishes and therefore, the tax base in this table is lower than in Table 1. The table below shows the number and tax base of town and parish councils and charter trustees charging precepts and the average parish precept on an average Band D property in a precepting area. It also shows comparisons with previous years. This table has been revised following the validation of the individual parish level data, which was published on 17th May here.

  • The average Band D precept charged by a parish or charter trustee for 2023-24 will be £79.35, an increase of £4.54, or 6.1%, from 2022-23.

Table 5: Average Band D parish precepts for England 2019-20 to 2023-24

Year 2019 to 2020 2020 to 2021 2021 to 2022 2022 to 2023 2023 to 2024 [r]
Total number of precepting parishes 8,859 8,886 8,877 8,874 8,881
Tax base (thousands) [note a] 8,253.8 8,532.7 8,600.7 8,757.7 8,920.2
Aggregate of local precepts (£000) [note b] 554,492 596,362 618,060 655,138 707,805
Average parish precept per Band D (£) 67.18 69.89 71.86 74.81 79.35
Change (£) 3.14 2.71 1.97 2.95 4.54
Percentage change (%) 4.9% 4.0% 2.8% 4.1% 6.1%

Footnotes for Table 5

[note a] Council tax payers in the Charter Trustees for the City of Durham have only been included once here, although they are actually spread across multiple parishes in Durham.

[note b] The aggregate of local precepts presented here may be different to the local authority total due to rounding.

[r] The data have been revised following the validation of the individual parish level data.

7. Council tax levels set by local authorities by area type

As well as adult social care and parish precepts, the average area Band D council tax is made up of several elements. In addition to the council tax for the local authority responsible for billing in the area, it will include council tax that will be redistributed to some, or all, of the following (depending on the authority area): county council (the Greater London Authority in London), fire and rescue authority, police & crime commissioner and combined authority.

Table 6 gives both the average Band D council tax levels and the annual percentage change for the last five years both for England and for London, metropolitan, unitary and shire areas within England. In order to calculate year-on-year changes that reflect local government re-organisation, 2022-23 and 2023-24 figures have been adjusted for the percentage change calculation, but the adjusted figures are not shown in the table.

  • The average area Band D council tax will be £1,789 across London (an increase of 6.2% when compared to 2022-23), £2,059 in metropolitan areas (+5.1%), and on a like for like basis, £2,139 (+5.0%) in unitary areas and £2,134 (+5.0%) in shire areas.

Table 6: Average area Band D council tax and the annual percentage change by area of authority, 2019-20 to 2023-24 [note a]

Year England £ England change % London area £ London area change % Metropolitan areas £ Metropolitan areas change % Unitary areas £ Unitary areas change [note b] % Shire areas £ Shire areas change [note b] %
2019 to 2020 1,750 4.7 1,477 5.1 1,739 4.9 1,814 4.3 1,826 4.7
2020 to 2021 1,818 3.9 1,534 3.9 1,809 4.0 1,886 3.9 1,895 3.8
2021 to 2022 1,898 4.4 1,622 5.7 1,893 4.6 1,970 4.6 1,970 3.8
2022 to 2023 1,966 3.5 1,684 3.8 1,960 3.6 2,034 3.3 2,041 3.6
2023 to 2024 2,065 5.1 1,789 6.2 2,059 5.1 2,139 5.0 2,134 5.0

Footnotes for Table 6

[note a] Figures include parish precepts and adult social care precepts.

[note b] The year-on-year percentage change has been calculated to reflect local government restructuring to allow for like-for-like comparisons at class level in 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2023-24.

Chart B shows the distribution of average area Band D area council tax.

Chart B: Distribution of authorities charging Band D area council tax in 2023-24

  • In 2023-24, 82% of all authorities will have an area Band D council tax that is £2,000 or more.

London is shown to be an area of relatively low council tax compared to the rest of the country, with 8 of the 9 authorities with an area council tax of less than £1,700 being London boroughs. Windsor and Maidenhead is the only other local authority to have an average area Band D council tax less than £1,700.

8. Average council tax per dwelling

As mentioned in the introduction, council tax can be measured in one of two ways - by Band D or in per dwelling terms. The number of Band D equivalent dwellings are collected at around the same time that the council tax levels are set by the local authority, whilst the per dwelling calculation uses the number of chargeable dwellings figures that are captured some five months in advance of setting council tax levels on the Council Tax Base (CTB) return. Consequently, the Band D measure better reflects the latest position and so Band D has historically been used as the standard for comparing council tax levels between and across local authorities. The average council tax per dwelling is lower than the average Band D council tax. This is because in England council tax bands A to C account for nearly two thirds of all dwellings.

  • The average council tax per dwelling will be £1,578 in 2023-24, an increase of 5.7% over 2022-23.

The average council tax per dwelling figure is a useful measure for comparing the amount of council tax paid by the average taxpayer in each local authority. Different local authorities often have very different tax bases because of the types of dwellings in their area and the discounts that they provide. This means that the average council tax per dwelling measure has more variation than the average per Band D equivalent measure.

Chart C shows the average council tax per dwelling for the last three years by type of authority:

Chart C: Average Council Tax per Dwelling in England by type of authority 2021-22 to 2023-24 [note a]

Footnote for Chart C

[note a] Figures include parish and adult social care precepts.

9. Accompanying Tables and Open Data

9.1 Symbols used

… = not available
0 = zero or negligible
- = not relevant
|| = a discontinuity in data between years
[R] = Revised since the previous update of this data

9.2 Rounding

Where figures have been rounded, there may be a slight discrepancy between the total and the sum of constituent parts. In particular, figures in this release are shown in pounds whilst the percentage changes are calculated on figures expressed to the nearest penny.

9.3 Tables

There are a number of additional tables produced for all authorities that are not included in the printed version of this release owing to their size. These are available on the Department’s website and are available to download alongside this release. These include accessible versions in .ods files of Tables 1 to 9 and data for individual local authorities.

Below is a brief description of the data contained in the tables:

Table 7 2023-24 Council tax (average Band D) and % change on 2022-23: individual local authorities.

Table 8 Area council tax for a dwelling occupied by 2 adults by band 2023-24: individual local authorities.

Table 9 Data as reported by billing and major precepting authorities on their Council Tax Requirement (CTR) form, that have been used in calculating their council tax level for 2023-24.

Live tables on Band D council tax and Average council tax per dwelling from 1993 can be found here.

10. Technical Notes

Please see the accompanying technical notes document for further details.

Information on Official Statistics is available via the UK Statistics Authority website.

Information about statistics at DLUHC is available via the Department’s website.