Every home in England and Wales sits in a council tax band from A to H (Wales adds an I). The surprising part: the band is not based on what your home is worth today. It is based on what it was worth on 1 April 1991 — over thirty years ago.
When council tax began, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) placed every home in a band according to its open-market value on 1 April 1991 in England, and 1 April 2003 in Wales. That date is frozen. A house that has quadrupled in price since 1991 is still banded on its 1991 value — which is why two identical homes can be worth the same today but sit in different bands if one was mis-valued back then.
| Band | Value on 1 April 1991 |
|---|---|
| A | up to £40,000 |
| B | £40,001 – £52,000 |
| C | £52,001 – £68,000 |
| D | £68,001 – £88,000 |
| E | £88,001 – £120,000 |
| F | £120,001 – £160,000 |
| G | £160,001 – £320,000 |
| H | £320,001 and over |
Wales uses 2003 values and nine bands (A up to £44,000, through to I over £424,000).
Why this matters for a challenge: to argue your band is too high, you work a real sale price back to 1991 money. If your home was worth, say, £98,000 in 1991, it belongs in Band E — and if you are in Band F, the value evidence is on your side.
England has never been revalued since 1991. Rising or falling house prices do not change your band. The only things that change a band are: the property being physically altered and then sold, a merger or split, or a successful challenge. So a mistake made in 1991 can still be on your bill today — quietly, year after year.
Band D is the reference point. The others are fixed fractions of it: Band A pays two-thirds of Band D, Band H pays twice Band D, and so on. The exact pounds depend on your local council, but the ratios are the same everywhere — so dropping one band is a real, permanent saving every year.
Check which band your home should be in →Free · we bring your value back to 1991 for you