Council tax for 2026/27 · England, Scotland and Wales
Bristol council tax 2026/27: a Band D home pays £2,713.68 a year
The cheapest band, A, pays £1,809.12; the dearest, H, pays £5,427.36. 36% of Bristol’s 214,470 homes are in Band B.
Band D costs £2,713.68 a year: £271.37 over 10 payments or £226.14 over 12. 9% of Bristol’s homes are in this band.
£1k£2k£3k£4k£5k£6k
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
Bristol, street by band. Walls rise to the yearly charge (one scale for all councils); each house is as wide as its band’s share of homes (all properties on the list at 31 March 2026, Valuation Office Agency). Narrow bands are kept visible.
Too narrow to draw to scale, so shown at a minimum width: Band F 2%, Band G 1%, Band H 0.2% of homes.
Every band in Bristol
Band
A year
Over 10 payments
Over 12 payments
Homes
£1,809.12
£180.91
£150.76
27%
£2,110.64
£211.06
£175.89
36%
£2,412.16
£241.22
£201.01
19%
£2,713.68
£271.37
£226.14
9%
£3,316.72
£331.67
£276.39
5%
£3,919.76
£391.98
£326.65
2%
£4,522.80
£452.28
£376.90
1%
£5,427.36
£542.74
£452.28
0.2%
These are averages for the whole council area, parish charges included: your own bill may be higher or lower depending on your parish. Monthly figures divide the yearly charge, rounded to the penny.
About Bristol’s figures
Only six English councils set a higher Band D than Bristol for 2026/27. At £2,713.68, Bristol stands £302.71 clear of the simple average across the 296, having added £129.79 (5.02%) since 2025/26; over the usual ten instalments that increase is roughly £12.98 a month.
With no parishes in Table 10, Bristol's figure is built from three blocks. The council's block, £2,310.05, is about 85p in the pound; policing takes £308.20 and fire £95.43. Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire pay those two outside amounts to the penny, so the £222.46 separating Bristol's Band D from North Somerset's comes from the council and parish elements. Inside Bristol's block sits £44.01 of adult social care precept added for 2026/27, beaten by only three councils.
Bristol is large as well as dear. Only 12 English councils list more homes than its 214,470, and its tax base runs to 137,029 Band D equivalents.
Its housing is anchored in Band B, home to 76,600 properties, more than a third (35.7%). Just one English council has a bigger Band B share. Add Band A's 26.9% and Band C's 19.4% and four Bristol homes in five (82.0%) fall in the three cheapest bands, against fewer than one in ten in Band D. Climbing from Band B, which costs £2,110.64, to Band D adds £603.04 a year; dropping to Band A saves £301.52. Bristol's Band H, held by 360 homes, costs £5,427.36.
Band D is the band the national tables use to compare councils. In Bristol it is £2,713.68 a year. Across the 296 councils in England the simple average of Band D is £2,410.97, and 289 of them charge less than Bristol.
The dearest Band D in England is Dorset at £2,765.02; the cheapest is Wandsworth at £1,028.21.
Where Bristol’s homes sit
The biggest share of homes, 36%, is in Band B. Bands A to C together hold 82% of the 214,470 homes, and bands E to H hold 9%.
Homes are counted as: all properties on the list at 31 March 2026, Valuation Office Agency.
Check your own band
The letter is printed on your council tax bill. To look up any home, use the official services: England and Wales or Scotland. Band by Band cannot tell you the band of an address.