Every band A to H for Bath, Keynsham, Midsomer Norton and Radstock. Bath band D is £2,325.27, up £110.73. Radstock pays £228 more for exactly the same band.
What you pay in Bath and North East Somerset depends on your band and on where you live. The district has 52 charging areas: 51 parishes, plus Bath itself, where Charter Trustees stand in for a parish council. Two identical band D houses, one in North Stoke and one in Radstock, are billed £236.13 apart. Every penny of that gap is the parish precept.
The figures below come from the council’s own council tax resolution, approved by full council on 24 February 2026.
Before you use the council’s PDF, one warning
The council publishes a file called Council Tax charges 2026 to 2027. Its first three pages are the correct 2026-27 band table. Everything from page four onwards is last year’s document, unchanged. The precept summary, the parish precept table and the percentage increase table are all labelled 2025/26, and all carry 2025/26 numbers. That includes a band D of £2,214.54 for Bath, which is now £110.73 out of date.
If you want the current precept breakdown, use the council tax setting annex linked above, not the PDF on the council tax page.
The 2026-27 bill, and what makes it up
A band D household in an average B&NES parish is billed £2,383.42, up £117.62 or 5.19% on last year.
| Part of the bill | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| B&NES general charge | £1,536.06 | £1,590.57 | +2.99 points |
| B&NES adult social care precept | £287.00 | £323.46 | +2.00 points |
| B&NES total | £1,823.06 | £1,914.03 | +4.99% |
| Avon and Somerset Police | £293.20 | £308.20 | +5.11% |
| Avon Fire Authority | £90.43 | £95.43 | +5.53% |
| Average parish precept | £59.11 | £65.76 | +11.25% |
| Average total | £2,265.80 | £2,383.42 | +5.19% |
The council’s own share went up by the maximum it could without a referendum: 2.99% on general spending plus 2% for adult social care. The police precept rose by a flat £15 a year and the fire precept by £5. The part that moved fastest was the smallest, the parish precept, which rose more than twice as fast as anything else.
Bands A to H for the main towns
These are the full 2026-27 charges, including police, fire and the parish or charter trustee precept. They assume at least two adults and no discounts.
| Area | Band A | Band B | Band C | Band D |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bath | £1,550.18 | £1,808.54 | £2,066.91 | £2,325.27 |
| Keynsham | £1,633.40 | £1,905.63 | £2,177.87 | £2,450.10 |
| Midsomer Norton | £1,665.04 | £1,942.53 | £2,220.05 | £2,497.55 |
| Radstock | £1,702.53 | £1,986.28 | £2,270.04 | £2,553.79 |
| Paulton | £1,654.94 | £1,930.76 | £2,206.59 | £2,482.41 |
| Peasedown St John | £1,662.74 | £1,939.85 | £2,216.99 | £2,494.10 |
| Westfield | £1,663.45 | £1,940.68 | £2,217.94 | £2,495.17 |
| Saltford | £1,571.91 | £1,833.89 | £2,095.88 | £2,357.86 |
| Chew Magna | £1,586.08 | £1,850.41 | £2,114.77 | £2,379.11 |
| North Stoke | £1,545.11 | £1,802.62 | £2,060.15 | £2,317.66 |
| Area | Band E | Band F | Band G | Band H |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bath | £2,842.00 | £3,358.72 | £3,875.45 | £4,650.54 |
| Keynsham | £2,994.57 | £3,539.03 | £4,083.50 | £4,900.20 |
| Midsomer Norton | £3,052.57 | £3,607.57 | £4,162.59 | £4,995.10 |
| Radstock | £3,121.30 | £3,688.81 | £4,256.32 | £5,107.58 |
| Paulton | £3,034.06 | £3,585.70 | £4,137.35 | £4,964.82 |
| Peasedown St John | £3,048.35 | £3,602.59 | £4,156.84 | £4,988.20 |
| Westfield | £3,049.66 | £3,604.13 | £4,158.62 | £4,990.34 |
| Saltford | £2,881.83 | £3,405.80 | £3,929.77 | £4,715.72 |
| Chew Magna | £2,907.81 | £3,436.49 | £3,965.19 | £4,758.22 |
| North Stoke | £2,832.70 | £3,347.73 | £3,862.77 | £4,635.32 |
North Stoke is the cheapest place in the district in every band, because its parish council sets a precept of zero. All 52 are listed in the council’s charges PDF, whose first three pages are current.
Bath itself is the second cheapest, because the Charter Trustees who stand in for a parish council there raise almost nothing: £7.61 on a band D home, against £236.13 in Radstock.
Where the parish precept jumped
The council’s average parish figure of 11.25% hides a much wider spread. These are the biggest movers in band D parish precept between 2025-26 and 2026-27:
| Parish | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corston | £74.01 | £106.32 | +43.7% |
| Radstock | £188.04 | £236.13 | +25.6% |
| Westfield | £142.74 | £177.51 | +24.4% |
| Saltford | £32.44 | £40.20 | +23.9% |
| Midsomer Norton | £147.91 | £179.89 | +21.6% |
| Keynsham | £118.41 | £132.44 | +11.8% |
| Bath (Charter Trustees) | £7.85 | £7.61 | -3.1% |
| Bathampton | £61.00 | £42.24 | -30.8% |
Parish precepts are not capped by the referendum rules that limit the council, the police and the fire authority, which is why they can move by these margins. Bathampton cut its precept from £47,800 to £33,000 and Corston raised its from £14,714 to £20,871.
At the whole-bill level that leaves Bath up 5.0% on the year, Keynsham up 5.4%, Midsomer Norton up 6.1% and Radstock up 6.6%.
How the bands themselves work
Your band was set by the Valuation Office Agency, not the council, on what the property was worth on 1 April 1991. The bands have never been revalued in England.
| Band | 1991 value |
|---|---|
| A | Up to £40,000 |
| B | £40,001 to £52,000 |
| C | £52,001 to £68,000 |
| D | £68,001 to £88,000 |
| E | £88,001 to £120,000 |
| F | £120,001 to £160,000 |
| G | £160,001 to £320,000 |
| H | £320,000 or more |
Every band is a fixed fraction of band D, in ninths: band A is six ninths, band C eight ninths, band E eleven ninths and band H exactly double. That is why the ratio between any two areas is identical in every band.
To check your band, use the GOV.UK council tax band search and put in your postcode.
To challenge it, you go to the VOA, not to B&NES. You need evidence, such as the bands of comparable properties nearby. The review is free and there is no charge for the service. Three things the council is clear about:
- you must keep paying at the current rate while the challenge is open
- if you win, the bill is recalculated and any overpayment refunded
- the review can move your band up as well as down
The relevant office is the Listings Officer, Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax, West Overline House, Blechynden Terrace, Southampton SO15 1GW, on 03000 501 501.
Discounts, exemptions and the empty property premium
The single person discount is 25% off the bill if you are the only adult over 18 in the household. You need your council tax account number to apply, and the council rechecks entitlement every year, so answer its letters or the discount can be cancelled.
The council also runs discounts and exemptions for full-time students, people with a severe mental impairment, disabled band reductions, annexes, apprentices and student nurses, carers, households where everyone is under 18, and after a death.
Empty property is charged the other way. A home empty for over a year is billed 200% of the normal band charge, and one empty for over five years 300%. Some unoccupied properties qualify for an exemption instead, and those are on the council’s unoccupied properties page.
If you are struggling to pay, contact the council before the arrears build: the help with paying page is the route in, and Council Connect is on 01225 394041.
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