Comparing London Borough Council Tax Rates
We’re currently looking to move and have been assessing different London boroughs to get an idea of where we’d like to move to and what the change to our cost of living would be. It has surprised me that there is such a great range of council tax rates across the boroughs, so I thought I’d go through all of them and share my finding here.
Greater London is comprised of 32 boroughs and the City of London, each has its own council and sets the council tax rates. In addition to the rates set by the council in whose borough you reside, you also have to pay rates set by the Greater London Authority. This comparison includes both the GLA and council tax rates as they are collected together.
Where possible I’ve used data for the 10/11 tax year, I have excluded supplementary payments for preservation areas as these only impact a few residences within specified areas of a borough.
I’ve organised the data table with reference to the borough map below so you can easily see the price to borough size comparison.
| Borough | Band A | Band B | Band C | Band D | Band E | Band F | Band G | Band H |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. City of London | 628.53 | 733.28 | 838.03 | 942.79 | 1152.30 | 1361.81 | 1571.32 | 1885.58 |
| 2. City of Westminster | 458.41 | 534.82 | 611.12 | 687.62 | 840.42 | 993.23 | 1146.03 | 1375.24 |
| 3. Kensington and Chelsea | 719.42 | 839.31 | 959.22 | 1079.12 | 1318.93 | 1558.73 | 1798.54 | 2158.24 |
| 4. Hammersmith and Fulham | 747.74 | 872.35 | 996.98 | 1121.60 | 1370.85 | 1620.09 | 1869.34 | 2243.20 |
| 5. Wandsworth | 454.54 | 530.30 | 606.06 | 681.81 | 833.33 | 984.84 | 1136.36 | 1363.62 |
| 6. Lambeth | 823.41 | 960.64 | 1097.88 | 1235.11 | 1509.58 | 1784.05 | 2058.52 | 2470.22 |
| 7. Southwark | 814.64 | 950.41 | 1086.19 | 1221.96 | 1493.51 | 1765.06 | 2036.60 | 2443.92 |
| 8. Tower Hamlets | 796.90 | 929.71 | 1062.53 | 1195.34 | 1460.97 | 1726.60 | 1992.24 | 2390.68 |
| 9. Hackney | 872.18 | 1017.54 | 1162.91 | 1308.27 | 1599.00 | 1889.73 | 2180.45 | 2616.54 |
| 10. Islington | 847.80 | 989.09 | 1130.40 | 1271.69 | 1554.29 | 1836.89 | 2119.49 | 2543.38 |
| 11. Camden | 887.57 | 1035.49 | 1183.43 | 1331.35 | 1627.21 | 1923.06 | 2218.92 | 2662.70 |
| 12. Brent | 912.51 | 1064.59 | 1216.68 | 1368.76 | 1672.93 | 1977.10 | 2281.27 | 2737.52 |
| 13. Ealing | 913.17 | 1065.36 | 1217.56 | 1369.75 | 1674.14 | 1978.53 | 2282.92 | 2739.50 |
| 14. Hounslow | 933.65 | 1089.25 | 1244.87 | 1400.47 | 1711.69 | 2022.90 | 2334.12 | 2800.94 |
| 15. Richmond upon Thames | 1064.81 | 1242.27 | 1419.74 | 1597.21 | 1952.15 | 2307.08 | 2662.02 | 3194.42 |
| 16. Kingston upon Thames | 1108.02 | 1292.69 | 1477.36 | 1662.03 | 2031.37 | 2400.71 | 2770.05 | 3324.06 |
| 17. Merton | 941.95 | 1098.94 | 1255.93 | 1412.92 | 1726.90 | 2040.89 | 2354.87 | 2825.84 |
| 18. Sutton | 967.14 | 1128.33 | 1289.52 | 1450.71 | 1773.09 | 2095.47 | 2417.85 | 2901.42 |
| 19. Croydon | 973.29 | 1135.51 | 1297.71 | 1459.93 | 1784.36 | 2108.79 | 2433.22 | 2919.86 |
| 20. Bromley | 867.42 | 1011.99 | 1156.56 | 1301.13 | 1590.27 | 1879.41 | 2168.55 | 2602.26 |
| 21. Lewisham | 901.29 | 1051.50 | 1201.72 | 1351.93 | 1652.36 | 1952.79 | 2253.22 | 2703.86 |
| 22. Greenwich | 860.49 | 1003.90 | 1147.32 | 1290.73 | 1577.56 | 1864.39 | 2151.22 | 2581.46 |
| 23. Bexley | 958.94 | 1118.76 | 1278.59 | 1438.41 | 1758.06 | 2077.70 | 2397.35 | 2876.82 |
| 24. Havering | 1007.33 | 1175.22 | 1343.11 | 1511.00 | 1846.78 | 2182.56 | 2518.33 | 3022.00 |
| 25. Barking and Dagenham | 884.15 | 1031.50 | 1178.87 | 1326.22 | 1620.94 | 1915.65 | 2210.37 | 2652.44 |
| 26. Redbridge | 936.90 | 1093.05 | 1249.20 | 1405.35 | 1717.65 | 2029.95 | 2342.25 | 2810.70 |
| 27. Newham | 836.97 | 976.46 | 1115.96 | 1255.45 | 1534.44 | 1813.43 | 2092.42 | 2510.90 |
| 28. Waltham Forest | 974.69 | 1137.13 | 1299.58 | 1462.03 | 1786.93 | 2111.82 | 2436.72 | 2924.06 |
| 29. Haringey | 996.11 | 1162.11 | 1328.13 | 1494.14 | 1826.06 | 2158.22 | 2490.24 | 2988.29 |
| 30. Enfield | 940.11 | 1096.79 | 1253.48 | 1410.16 | 1723.53 | 2036.90 | 2350.27 | 2820.32 |
| 31. Barnet | 948.68 | 1106.79 | 1264.91 | 1423.02 | 1739.25 | 2055.48 | 2371.70 | 2846.04 |
| 32. Harrow | 997.52 | 1163.84 | 1330.11 | 1496.37 | 1828.90 | 2161.42 | 2493.95 | 2992.74 |
| 33. Hillingdon | 948.50 | 1106.58 | 1264.67 | 1422.75 | 1738.92 | 2055.09 | 2371.25 | 2845.50 |
I hope you find it useful, there’s a downloadable CSV of the data here if you want to play around with it.
Hi Kate,
Thank-you for that, it was fairly much as I expected with Westminster and Wandsworth coming out tops. Weird though. You have saved me a lot of trawling through data.
Regards
Alaine Addley
Dyspraxic shoelace-tier
Thank you for this comparative table. Excellent!
Hello Katy,
Thanks for this table. However I am a newly implanted canadian and don’t know how to interpret this table to find the lowest tax rates from all the boroughs, with the bands and all. Can you write me the lowest tax rates of the boroughs to provide me with an example to follow? Many thanks… great blog!
Hi Thea,
The band is dependent upon the value of the property (council tax valuations are based on the price a property would have fetched if it had been sold on 1 April 1991) so the lower the properties value, the lower the band, and thus the lower the the council tax bill you’ll have to pay.
You can see the valuations to bands here http://www.voa.gov.uk/council_tax/Counciltax-aguide.htm#A3 – if you are going to be renting your prospective agent should be able to tell you what band a property you are interested in belongs to.
Hope that helps and welcome!
Katy
Thanks for posting this table, it’s really handy. I’m surprised to see how little it varies from borough to borough, and it makes me less scared of accidentally choosing a flat in an unexpected council tax hotspot.
Hi,
thanks for this – amazing job, saved a lot of work!
Thanks – I’m also looking to move – please can you move again in 2011 and do it all again :-)
Hi Laurie,
We have actually just finished moving! We’ve moved out to Ashford (which has a high-speed rail link to Kings Cross), we’ve saved a third of the renting cost on where we were in Lewisham and have a bigger house too. The total travel time to get into a central London office for work is practically identical.
The good news for you is that council taxes were frozen (or reduced) for 2011, so the above table should stil be reasonably accurate (or you might even pay a little less).
Thanks for the comment and I wish you all the best in finding a new home!
Katy
That. Was incredibly useful, thanks a lot Katy, Fezzes are cool!