Council Tax Rise 2025: How Much More Are You Paying This Year?

What changed in April 2025

Since 2021, central government has permitted English councils to raise council tax by up to 3% for general purposes and a further 2% for adult social care — a combined 4.99% cap before a local referendum is required. In April 2025, the overwhelming majority of councils exercised their full permission.

According to data compiled by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), approximately 84% of English billing authorities raised by between 4.5% and 4.99% in 2025/26. The average Band D bill across England rose to £2,171, up from £2,065 in 2024/25 — an increase of £106 per year, or £8.83 per month.

In London, bills are calculated differently — a London-wide precept for the Greater London Authority is added to each borough's own rate. In 2025/26, the GLA precept increased by approximately 8.3% (from £471 to £510 for a Band D property), partly to fund transport and policing costs.

How much you'll pay by band

Council tax bands in England are set based on 1991 property values. Bands run from A (lowest value) to H (highest value). Band D is the reference band — all other bands are calculated as a fixed ratio of Band D. Scotland and Wales have separate systems with different banding ranges and rates.

Source: DLUHC Council Tax Statistics 2025/26. Figures are England averages. Actual bills vary significantly by local authority. Welsh and Scottish systems differ.

20 years of council tax rises

Council tax was introduced in England in 1993, replacing the Community Charge. Since then, the trajectory has been relentlessly upward — with only brief freezes (typically funded by central government grants to compensate) interrupting steady annual increases.

In 2003/04, the average Band D bill was approximately £1,088. By 2025/26, that figure had reached £2,171. That is a nominal increase of 100% over 22 years — an average annual rise of approximately 3.2%, compared to average CPI inflation of approximately 2.6% over the same period.

The gap between council tax growth and general inflation was particularly acute between 2003 and 2010, when bills rose by an average of 5–7% annually, and again from 2022 onwards as councils faced rising social care costs and energy bills.

What councils spend it on

Council tax is not ringfenced — it funds the full range of local authority services. According to DLUHC data for 2024/25, the broad allocation of English council tax revenue was:

• Adult social care: approximately 40% of council budgets (and rising). This includes residential care for elderly and disabled adults, home care packages, and mental health support.
• Children's services: approximately 20%, covering child protection, looked-after children, and early years provision.
• Highways and transport: approximately 10%, covering roads, street lighting, and local transport subsidies.
• Waste collection and disposal: approximately 6–8%.
• Leisure, parks, libraries: a declining share, now often below 5% as these services face cuts.
• Planning, housing, and other: the remainder.

The sustained rise in adult social care costs — driven by an ageing population, rising care worker wages following the National Living Wage increases, and growing demand for complex care packages — is the primary structural driver of above-inflation council tax rises. The adult social care precept (the additional 2% allowed separately from the 3% general increase) was introduced specifically to ring-fence some of this cost.

Why it keeps rising

Three forces combine to make sustained council tax increases structurally inevitable under the current system:

Demographic pressure. The UK's population aged 65+ is projected to rise from 10.7 million in 2020 to approximately 14.5 million by 2035 (ONS Population Projections). Adult social care costs are correlated directly with this trend, and the local authority system bears the largest share of these costs.

Revenue inadequacy. Council tax accounts for only around 25% of total local government funding in England. The rest comes from central government grants and business rates retention. When central grants fall (as they have in real terms since 2010), councils face a binary choice: cut services or raise council tax. Most have done both.

Referendum thresholds. The requirement to hold a local referendum for rises above 4.99% creates a de facto ceiling that also functions as a floor — setting the maximum as the expected norm rather than an exceptional measure.

How to challenge your bill

You cannot challenge the level of council tax itself — that is set by your council and central government. But you can challenge whether your property is in the correct band:

1. Look up your current band at gov.uk/council-tax-bands.
2. Compare your property's 1991 value to neighbouring properties of similar size that sold around that time. HM Land Registry holds historical records.
3. If you believe your band is too high, contact the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) in England and Wales to request a review.
4. If successful, the VOA will reclassify your property. Your rebanded amount will be applied going forward, and you may be entitled to a refund of overpaid tax — sometimes going back years.

Citizens Advice estimates up to 400,000 English properties are in the wrong band. The most common error affects properties built after 1991, when valuers used estimating methods that sometimes placed properties in bands too high relative to similar period properties.