How to check a claim about council tax or council spending

Updated 2026-10-13

Edited by Mistabilda, Editor

Council tax claims in England can be checked against the government's annual Council tax levels statistics, which give the average Band D bill for every council and precepting authority. Council spending claims can be checked against the Local authority revenue expenditure and financing statistics, published as budgets each summer and as outturn later. The usual pitfalls are mixing Band D with the average bill per home, mixing one council's share with the whole bill, and mixing cash with real terms.

Step 1: identify what kind of council tax figure is claimed

A council tax bill in England can include charges from several bodies: the district or unitary council, the county council, the police and crime commissioner, the fire authority, a combined authority, and a parish or town council. The official statistics give each part separately as well as the total.

Three measures are commonly quoted:

Average Band D council tax: the "standard measure", the bill on a Band D home with at least two adults. All other bands are set as a fixed proportion of Band D; see council tax bands .

Average council tax per dwelling: the average bill across all homes, which is lower because most homes are in Bands A to C.

The council tax requirement: the total cash raised.

Worked example: "council tax is going up by 5% this year"

The MHCLG release Council tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027 , published on 25 March 2026, says:

"The average Band D council tax set by local authorities in England for 2026-27 will be £2,392, which is an increase of £111 or 4.9% on the 2025-26 figure." This includes adult social care and parish precepts.

"The average council tax per dwelling will be £1,868 in 2026-27."

By area type, average Band D rose 4.4% in London, 5.2% in metropolitan areas, 5.3% in unitary areas and 4.6% in shire areas.

Of 384 authorities subject to referendum principles, "274 authorities used the maximum flexibility available to them" and 21 "either made no change or decreased" their Band D tax.

So "5%" is close to the England average of 4.9%, but the rise for any one household depends on its council, band and parish. To check a claim about a particular council, open the release's accompanying tables, find the billing authority, and compare 2026-27 with 2025-26 on the same basis (with or without parish precepts). For the rules on how much councils can raise it, see the maximum council tax increase and how much council tax has gone up .

Source: Council tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027

Step 2: separate the shares on the bill

A claim such as "the council put my bill up by 8%" may be mixing the billing council's own share with the total, or the other way round. The tables give separate Band D figures for each authority, so check which one the claim refers to. Some rises are driven by the police precept or a parish, not the council named. The release notes that "for those areas where parishes charge a precept, there has been an average Band D parish precept increase of 8.2% (or £8)": a large percentage on a small amount.

Step 3: check spending claims against the revenue statistics

MHCLG's Local authority revenue expenditure and financing collection has two kinds of release:

Budget figures, published in the summer, for what councils plan to spend in the current year;

Outturn figures, published later, for what they actually spent. See outturn .

The 2026-27 budget release (published 11 June 2026, updated 25 June 2026) says net current expenditure on services in England "is budgeted to be £148.8 billion in 2026-27", £7.4 billion or 5.2% higher in real terms than budgeted for 2025-26. Education accounts for 33% of this, adult social care 19% and children's social care 11%.

Sources: Local authority revenue expenditure and financing, 2026-27 budget release

Worked example: a 399% rise that is not new money

The same release says that for 2026-27, "several grants have been consolidated into the Revenue Support Grant resulting in a real terms increase of £9.4 billion (+399.2%) from 2025-26". In the same paragraph, specific and special grants fall by £5.2 billion (-8.1%).

A claim that "the government has increased its main grant to councils almost fivefold" would quote one line accurately while leaving out that much of the money moved from other grants. The release's total for central government grants is £81.5 billion, "£4.9 billion (+6.3%) higher in real terms". When a percentage looks extraordinary, check whether the definition of the item changed; see how to check a percentage claim .

Step 4: watch for these traps

Budget versus outturn. A council's plans can differ from what it spends. Use outturn for "spent".

Cash versus real terms. The budget release reports many changes in real terms. Check which a claim uses; see cash and real terms .

Ring-fenced money. The release notes that education funding, a third of the total, "is ring-fenced", so councils cannot move it to other services.

Exceptional financial support. The release notes that the government agreed to support 35 councils for 2026-27 with £1.5 billion through the Exceptional Financial Support process. See also section 114 notices .

Council's own accounts. For a specific purchase or contract, use the council's spending over £500 data or its accounts; see spending over £500 and inspecting council accounts .

Scotland and Wales

Council tax is set and published separately. The Welsh Government publishes council tax levels each year, and the Scottish Government publishes council tax datasets and local government finance statistics . Band structures and multipliers differ between the nations, so compare like with like; see council tax in Scotland and council tax in Wales . Northern Ireland has domestic rates instead; see domestic rates .

Sources: council tax levels, council tax datasets, local government finance statistics