Every figure on this site can be traced back to an official source. This page sets out which sources we use, how we handle the messy edge cases, and what we don't yet cover.
checkcounciltax is built primarily from public data published under the UK Open Government Licence. We don't pay for proprietary data feeds, we don't licence figures from third parties, and we don't make estimates where official figures exist.
The single most important source. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government publishes an annual statistical release titled Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England, usually around late March each year. The release contains:
We download these tables on release and after each subsequent revision (MHCLG sometimes publishes corrections in April or May), parse them, and use them as the authoritative source for English council band rates.
For councils where MHCLG's release is incomplete, ambiguous, or where we want to add detail (council tax reduction scheme rules, payment dates, contact information, parish precepts not in the headline tables), we go to the council's own published 2026/27 council tax schedule. These are required to be public and are usually found at {council}.gov.uk/council-tax or similar.
The VOA sets the band of each property in England and Wales. Bands are based on what the property would have sold for in April 1991 (England) or April 2003 (Wales). Where we discuss bands, banding challenges, or property-level information, the VOA is our reference. We link to the VOA's band-checker for users wanting to look up their own band.
For councils outside England, the data path is slightly different. Welsh Government publishes equivalent council tax data at gov.wales/council-tax-levels. Scottish Government publishes Scottish council figures at gov.scot. Coverage of Wales and Scotland is being added — England coverage is comprehensive.
For demographic context — population, household counts, dwelling stock by type — we use ONS data, particularly the Council Tax: stock of properties release.
Each council has a structured record containing:
The complete schema is documented internally; it's the same shape for every council so we can compare and rank them.
Councils that have issued a Section 114 notice (the local-government equivalent of declaring bankruptcy) can apply for special dispensation to exceed the standard 4.99% referendum cap. Where this applies, we mark the council with a Section 114 tag and use a different content template that explains the financial-distress context.
Some councils have parish or town councils that levy their own precept on top of the principal authority's charge. The MHCLG figures include the average parish precept where applicable. For council pages where parish precepts vary significantly within the area, we note this and direct users to their council bill for the exact figure.
A handful of councils have levy areas — properties in defined geographic zones pay an additional charge that funds local commons, internal drainage boards, or other local infrastructure. The most prominent example is the Wimbledon and Putney Commons levy in Wandsworth. We show levies as separate lines on the relevant council pages.
Where MHCLG's release doesn't break out the per-component precept (or where we haven't yet added it for a particular council), we show the headline Band D figure with a note that the full breakdown will be added in a subsequent data refresh. The headline figure is always correct.
Honest about the limits:
Take any council page on this site. The Band D rate we show should match:
If the figures don't match, it's almost always because the council's website hasn't been updated to reflect a late MHCLG revision. Where we know there's been a revision, we use the latest MHCLG figure and note the date.
Found an error? Got a question about a specific calculation? Want to know where a particular figure came from? Email us and we'll look into it.
All band rate data is sourced under the UK Open Government Licence v3.0. We are not affiliated with any UK council, the VOA, or MHCLG.