posted on 28 March 2019, updated on 28 March 2019
Both the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Welsh Government recently published their annual Council Tax Levels reports, which include details of the levels of average Band D council tax by local authority.
The key points for the English report are as follows:
- The average Band D council tax set by local authorities in England for 2019/20 will be £1,750, which is an increase of £78 or 4.7% on the 2018/19 figure of £1,671.
- In 2019/20, 85 out of 151 adult social care authorities will utilise some or all of their remaining adult social care precept flexibility (maximum of 2%) when setting their council tax. This additional flexibility accounts for £11 of the average Band D council tax bill.
- The average area Band D council tax will be £1,477 in London (an increase of £72 when compared to 2018/19), £1,739 in metropolitan areas (+£81), £1,814 (+£75) in unitary areas and £1,826 (+£82) in shire areas.
- The council tax requirement in 2019/20 is £31.4 billion, of which £200 million (0.6%) will be raised through the adult social care precept, and £554 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 5.7% in 2019/20.
The key points for the Welsh report are as follows:
- Average Band D council tax for Wales for 2019/20 is £1,591. This includes £1,294 for county councils, £260 for police and £36 for community councils. Band D figures for billing authorities, including police and community councils, vary from £1,377 in Pembrokeshire to £1,928 in Blaenau Gwent.
- County council increases in Band D council tax for 2019/20 average £77 or 6.2% over the previous year. Police increases average £22 or 9.1%. These increases combine to produce an average Band D rise of £99 or 6.6%.
- Pembrokeshire has the largest overall Band D percentage increase of 10.0%. Rhondda Cynon Taf has the smallest overall Band D percentage increase of 4.5%.
- Dyfed Powys Police have the largest Band D increase of 10.7%. Gwent Police have the smallest Band D increase of 7.0%.
- In England, the estimated Band D percentage increase is 4.5%.
- Welsh average Band D council tax is 91% of the latest estimated figure of £1,747 for England.