Council tax for 2026/27 · England, Scotland and Wales
Preston council tax 2026/27: a Band D home pays £2,575.74 a year
The cheapest band, A, pays £1,717.16; the dearest, H, pays £5,151.48. 43% of Preston’s 71,200 homes are in Band A.
Band D costs £2,575.74 a year: £257.57 over 10 payments or £214.65 over 12. 11% of Preston’s homes are in this band.
£1k£2k£3k£4k£5k£6k
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
Preston, 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 G 2%, Band H under 0.1% of homes.
Every band in Preston
Band
A year
Over 10 payments
Over 12 payments
Homes
£1,717.16
£171.72
£143.10
43%
£2,003.35
£200.34
£166.95
19%
£2,289.55
£228.96
£190.80
16%
£2,575.74
£257.57
£214.65
11%
£3,148.13
£314.81
£262.34
6%
£3,720.51
£372.05
£310.04
3%
£4,292.90
£429.29
£357.74
2%
£5,151.48
£515.15
£429.29
under 0.1%
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 Preston’s figures
Most of what Preston households pay at Band D never reaches Preston's own council. The county council claims £1,801.75 of the £2,575.74 average, a full 70.0%, while the local council's share is £375.34, or 14.6%, so the county takes nearly five times as much. Policing accounts for £292.40, the fire authority for £94.73, and Preston's nine parishes average £11.52.
Precisely the same county, police and fire sums appear for ten other councils, so within that group of eleven the ranking turns on local council and parish charges. Preston comes second; Pendle, the only one above it, charges £64.44 more.
Preston's rise for 2026/27 was a restrained £97.89, taking Band D from £2,477.85 to its current level, or 3.95%. Only 34 English councils raised Band D by a smaller percentage.
Homes in Preston lean heavily towards the cheap end. Band A, charged £1,717.16 for 2026/27, takes in 30,940 of the 71,200 properties, 43.5%, and Band B another 13,830; Band D, the yardstick for all these averages, has 7,620. The four top bands together come to 10.3%, and Band H has just 70, each billed £5,151.48. Bands A and B together therefore hold 62.9% of Preston's homes, with a further 11,490 in Band C.
One line of Table 10 is worth noting: it budgets on collecting 96.2% of the tax, a rate 17 English councils set lower.
Band D is the band the national tables use to compare councils. In Preston it is £2,575.74 a year. Across the 296 councils in England the simple average of Band D is £2,410.97, and 246 of them charge less than Preston.
The dearest Band D in England is Dorset at £2,765.02; the cheapest is Wandsworth at £1,028.21.
Where Preston’s homes sit
The biggest share of homes, 43%, is in Band A. Bands A to C together hold 79% of the 71,200 homes, and bands E to H hold 10%.
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.