Westminster council tax bands for 2026/27, A to H with the GLA split. The council's own web page swaps band G and mistypes band B. Here are the right figures.

If you look up the Westminster council tax bands for 2026/27 on the council’s own website, two of the figures you will read are wrong. The totals are right, so nobody is being overcharged, but the split between what goes to Westminster City Council and what goes to the Greater London Authority is transposed at band G and mistyped at band B. The council’s own printed guide has it correct. The web page, which is what almost everyone reads, does not.

Here is the corrected table for the 2026/27 financial year, which runs from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, for the great majority of the City where no additional precept applies.

Band 1991 value Westminster GLA precept Total for the year
A Up to £40,000 £358.23 £340.34 £698.57
B £40,001 to £52,000 £417.93 £397.06 £814.99
C £52,001 to £68,000 £477.64 £453.79 £931.43
D £68,001 to £88,000 £537.34 £510.51 £1,047.85
E £88,001 to £120,000 £656.75 £623.96 £1,280.71
F £120,001 to £160,000 £776.16 £737.40 £1,513.56
G £160,001 to £320,000 £895.57 £850.85 £1,746.42
H Over £320,000 £1,074.68 £1,021.02 £2,095.70

The two errors, and how you can prove them yourself

Council tax bands are not independently priced. They are fixed statutory multiples of band D: band A is six ninths of band D, B is seven ninths, C eight ninths, E eleven ninths, F thirteen ninths, G fifteen ninths and H eighteen ninths. That makes any published table checkable with a calculator.

Band G. Westminster’s band D charge is £537.34, so its band G must be £537.34 x 15 / 9, which is £895.57. The GLA precept at band D is £510.51, so its band G must be £850.85. The council’s bands and charges page prints those two figures the other way round, showing £850.85 under Westminster and £895.57 under the GLA. The same transposition repeats in all three of the tables on that page.

Band B. The GLA precept at band B must be £510.51 x 7 / 9, which is £397.06. The web page shows £397.96. The give-away is on the same row: the page’s own band B total of £814.99 only works if the GLA figure is £397.06, because £417.93 plus £397.96 comes to £815.89.

Both figures are correct in the council’s own Your guide to Council Tax 2026/27, the PDF linked from that same page, which prints band G as £895.57 Westminster and £850.85 GLA, and band B GLA as £397.06.

The practical effect is limited, because you pay the total and the total is right in both places. It matters if you are quoting the split, comparing the GLA precept across boroughs, or trying to work out how much of your bill funds the Mayor rather than the City. In those cases, use the PDF.

Westminster is not the cheapest in England

It is close, and it is repeated so often locally that it is worth settling. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government publishes Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027, which ranks every billing authority on average area band D. The range this year runs from £1,028 at the bottom to £2,765 at the top. The bottom is Wandsworth. The top is Dorset.

Westminster comes second, on an area average of about £1,050, which is a shade above its headline £1,047.85 because the average takes in the two precepting areas covered below. The England average band D is £2,392, up £111 or 4.9% on last year.

So the accurate claim, and the one worth making, is that Westminster has the second lowest council tax in England, roughly £22 a year above Wandsworth at band D and around £1,340 below the England average. A band H property in Westminster pays £2,095.70, which is still less than the average band D bill in England.

Note also what is happening inside the figure. The council has frozen its general council tax for 2026/27 and applied only a 2% rise in the adult social care precept. Rather more than half of a Westminster bill is now the GLA precept rather than the council’s own charge: at band D, £510.51 of the £1,047.85 total, or 48.7%. In most of England the borough or district element dwarfs the county and precepting bodies. In Westminster the Mayor takes almost half.

Queen’s Park and Montpelier Square pay more

Two small areas of the City have an additional precept on top of the figures above, and one of them is remarkable.

Queen’s Park. The Queen’s Park Community Council, created in April 2014, adds £52.31 at band D, taking the total to £1,100.16. Across the bands the precept runs from £34.87 at band A to £104.62 at band H.

Montpelier Square. An additional precept applies here too, and at band D it is £550.85. That is more than the entire Westminster City Council element of £537.34. A band D household in Montpelier Square pays £1,598.70 for the year against £1,047.85 everywhere else in the City, an uplift of 52.6%, and at band H the total reaches £3,197.40.

Both precepts follow the same statutory band ratios as everything else, so if you know the band D figure you can work out any band.

Checking and challenging your band

Your band is set by the Valuation Office Agency, not by Westminster, and it reflects what the property was worth in April 1991, not what it is worth now. You can look up any address free on GOV.UK’s check your council tax band service. Your band is also printed on your bill, just under the words “Council Tax demand”.

If you think the band is wrong you challenge it with the VOA, not the council. Two things are worth knowing before you start. You must keep paying at the current band until the challenge is decided. And a challenge can result in the band going up as well as down, including for neighbouring properties in some circumstances, so check comparable addresses on the VOA list first. You do not need an agent and you should not pay a commission to one; the service is free and you can do it yourself, or ring the VOA on 03000 501 501.

Empty homes and second homes

Westminster applies some of the steepest premiums in the country, which is unsurprising in a City with this many under-occupied properties.

  • Empty longer than 12 months and up to five years: a 100% premium, so double the normal bill.
  • Empty longer than five years and up to ten years: a 200% premium, so triple.
  • Empty longer than ten years: a 300% premium, so quadruple.
  • Second homes: a 100% premium, in effect since 1 April 2025.

At band H that means an empty Westminster property in its eleventh year is billed £8,382.80 for the year. There are exclusions, and the council publishes a separate document setting them out.

For the other side of the bill, our page on Westminster council tax discounts covers the single person discount, student exemptions and the reduction scheme. If you are following the money rather than the bill, we have also covered the council’s budget gap.

Frequently asked questions

What are the Westminster council tax bands for 2026/27? For most of the City, band A is £698.57 for the year, rising to £2,095.70 at band H, with band D at £1,047.85. Each figure splits into a Westminster City Council element and a Greater London Authority precept, which at band D are £537.34 and £510.51. The full table is at the top of this page, corrected against the council’s own published guide.

Does Westminster have the lowest council tax in England? No, the second lowest. On the government’s own ranking of average area band D charges for 2026 to 2027, Wandsworth is bottom at about £1,028 and Westminster is next at about £1,050, against an England average of £2,392 and a top figure of £2,765 in Dorset. The gap between first and second is around £22 a year.

Why do Westminster’s own figures for band G look wrong? Because two of them are. The council’s bands and charges web page transposes the Westminster and GLA figures at band G, and mistypes the GLA figure at band B as £397.96 instead of £397.06. The totals on the page are correct, and the council’s PDF guide has the split correct. The error is on the web page only.

How much of a Westminster council tax bill goes to the Mayor of London? Almost half. The GLA precept is £510.51 of the £1,047.85 band D total, which is 48.7%. That share is unusually high because Westminster’s own charge is so low; the GLA precept is the same for every London borough at a given band, so it makes up a much larger slice of a small bill.

Why is council tax higher in Queen’s Park and Montpelier Square? Both areas have an additional local precept on top of the City and GLA charges. Queen’s Park Community Council, set up in April 2014, adds £52.31 at band D. The Montpelier Square precept adds £550.85 at band D, which is more than the Westminster City Council element itself and takes a band D bill there to £1,598.70.

How do I challenge my council tax band? Through the Valuation Office Agency, not the council, using the free service on GOV.UK or by calling 03000 501 501. Bands reflect April 1991 values, so compare your address against similar neighbouring properties on the VOA list before you start, because a review can move a band up as well as down. Keep paying at your existing band until the challenge is settled.