Every Stratford district band for 2026/27, from £1,597.83 at Band A. Band D is £2,396.75 before your parish precept, and Alcester adds £175.88 on top.
Council tax in Stratford-on-Avon district for 2026/27 starts at £1,597.83 a year at Band A and £4,793.50 at Band H. A Band D home pays £2,396.75.
Those are the figures for a property in a parish that charges no precept. Almost nobody is in that position. 86 parishes in this district add a precept, and what they add ranges from £19.51 to £179.15 at Band D. That is the part of the bill that varies, and it is the part the council buries in a PDF.
The full band table, and every parish, is in the council’s Notice of Council Tax 2026/27.
The band table, before any parish precept
| Band | 1991 value | 2026/27 charge |
|---|---|---|
| A | up to £40,000 | £1,597.83 |
| B | £40,001 to £52,000 | £1,864.14 |
| C | £52,001 to £68,000 | £2,130.45 |
| D | £68,001 to £88,000 | £2,396.75 |
| E | £88,001 to £120,000 | £2,929.36 |
| F | £120,001 to £160,000 | £3,461.97 |
| G | £160,001 to £320,000 | £3,994.58 |
| H | more than £320,000 | £4,793.50 |
The 1991 values are the national band boundaries, set by the Valuation Office Agency on what a property would have sold for on 1 April 1991. (Council Tax Bandings)
What your parish adds
At Band D, the towns pay:
| Parish | Precept at Band D | Total Band D bill |
|---|---|---|
| No parish precept | none | £2,396.75 |
| Temple Grafton (district’s lowest) | £19.51 | £2,416.26 |
| Stratford-upon-Avon | £56.13 | £2,452.88 |
| Beaudesert & Henley-in-Arden | £93.30 | £2,490.05 |
| Wellesbourne | £105.38 | £2,502.13 |
| Southam | £122.69 | £2,519.44 |
| Bidford-on-Avon | £146.31 | £2,543.06 |
| Studley | £152.71 | £2,549.46 |
| Shipston-on-Stour | £165.08 | £2,561.83 |
| Alcester | £175.88 | £2,572.63 |
| Avon Dassett (district’s highest) | £179.15 | £2,575.90 |
The gap between the cheapest and dearest Band D bill in this district is £159.64 a year, and every penny of it is the parish precept. The average across the 86 precepting parishes is £87.42.
Stratford-upon-Avon town is a long way below that average. Its precept is the largest in the district in cash terms, £823,412, but it is spread across far more households than anywhere else, so at Band D it works out at £56.13.
The full parish list, with 2025/26 and 2026/27 figures side by side, is on pages 18 and 19 of Your Guide to Council Tax 2026/27.
Who gets the money
Four bodies share your bill, and there is no separate fire precept in Warwickshire. Fire and rescue is funded inside the county council’s share.
| Preceptor | Band A | Band D | Band H | Share of the total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warwickshire County Council | £1,269.24 | £1,903.86 | £3,807.72 | 76.7% |
| Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner | £212.47 | £318.71 | £637.42 | 12.8% |
| Stratford-on-Avon District Council | £116.12 | £174.18 | £348.36 | 7.0% |
| Average town or parish council | £87.42 | 3.5% |
The district council collects £157.3m in council tax on behalf of all of them and keeps 7p in the pound. (Your Guide to Council Tax 2026/27, page 2)
The per-band figures for the county and the police are confirmed in North Warwickshire Borough Council’s 2026/27 notice, which sets them out by preceptor. They are the same across Warwickshire.
What went up, and by how much
- Warwickshire County Council: 4.4%, including a 2% adult social care precept. That is below the 4.99% it could have charged without a referendum, and the council says it stopped short because of cost-of-living pressure. (Warwickshire County Council)
- Warwickshire Police: 4.94%, an extra £15 a year at Band D, taking the policing element to £318.71 as part of a £185m budget.
- Stratford-on-Avon District Council: 2.99%, from £169.12 to £174.18 at Band D. That is £5.06 more over the year. The council describes itself as the 18th lowest-taxing of 164 district councils. (Council Tax level for Stratford-on-Avon District)
- Town and parish councils together: £5,535,570, up from £5,273,220.
Some parish rises are much steeper than the headline. Brailes went from £24,309 to £72,774, roughly tripling in a year, and its Band D precept is now £131.11. Claverdon doubled, from £42,000 to £85,000. Movement runs the other way too: Welford-on-Avon cut its precept from £200,000 to £89,286, and Southam from £442,062 to £394,620. A parish precept is not capped, so these are worth checking on your own bill rather than assuming last year’s figure.
A 100% second homes premium is coming in 2027
Stratford-on-Avon District Council agreed on 23 February 2026 to charge a 100% council tax premium on second homes, from 1 April 2027. It is not in force this year, and it is not mentioned on the council’s discounts page.
The district has 859 second homes, over 1% of its housing stock, and all 859 owners were written to before 31 March 2026. The consultation ran from 15 December 2025 to 2 February 2026 and drew 589 online responses plus 8 postal ones. The council’s stated aim is to push some of those properties back onto the market in an area where the average house price was £382,000 in September 2024, against £257,000 across the West Midlands. (Council Tax Premiums on Second Homes Consultation)
Second homes already get no discount at all here. The council removed it on 1 April 2013.
Checking and challenging your band
Your band is set by the Valuation Office Agency, not the council. You can check your band and submit a challenge on GOV.UK.
The rules the council sets out:
- You can ask the VOA to review your band as of right if you have been the taxpayer for less than six months, or your band changed in the last six months.
- Outside that window you can still ask, but you need strong supporting evidence.
- An appeal does not let you stop paying. If it succeeds you get a refund of the overpayment.
- A derelict property, one undergoing major renovation or one that has been demolished can be proposed for deletion from the list, using a VOA form.
Discounts, and the ones people miss
- Single occupier: 25% off if you are the only person over 18 living there as your main home.
- Disregarded people are not counted at all: full-time students and student nurses, Youth Training trainees, people with a severe mental impairment, and carers looking after someone who is not their spouse, partner or child under 18.
- Annexes: 50% off, either for a relative living in an annexe, or for a household using an unoccupied annexe as part of the main home. The council defines “relative” very widely, out to great-great-nephews and nieces.
- Disability reduction: if someone needs an extra room, an extra bathroom or kitchen, or space to use a wheelchair indoors, the bill is charged as if the home were one band lower. A Band A home is charged at 5/9 of Band D.
- Local Council Tax Reduction is the means-tested scheme for people on a low income. Apply on 01789 260991.
- Section 13A hardship relief is discretionary and can reduce a bill to nil, but it is a last resort, and only after every other discount has been explored.
Empty property rules are less generous than people expect. A substantially unfurnished and unoccupied home gets three months at no charge, and that three months does not restart for a new owner. After two years empty, a 100% premium is added on top of the full charge. Homes genuinely up for sale since they became empty are exempt from the premium, and the two-year clock resets on a sale or on the death of the owner. (Discounts and Exemptions)
One warning on that page is easy to miss. If a discount is on your bill and your circumstances change, you have to say so. Failing to tell the council carries a £70 penalty the first time and £280 every time after.
This council may not exist by 2028, but the plan is now paused
Worth knowing when you read this year’s bill. In her budget message, council leader Cllr Susan Juned wrote that government “has made it clear it wishes to see the end of two-tier working in Local Government” and that, if the timetable is met, “this District Council will no longer exist by 2028”. The council has told government it prefers a south Warwickshire unitary. The 2026/27 budget includes £1,000,000 of one-off spending on temporary legal, finance and HR staff for reorganisation. (Your Guide to Council Tax 2026/27, page 3)
Update, 12 September 2026. That timetable is no longer running. The government chose the two-unitary model for Warwickshire on 16 July 2026, then put the decision under review on 7 September and told councils to stop implementing it. The May 2027 election now goes ahead to existing district boundaries. See Stratford council abolition paused. The leader’s message quoted above was written in February 2026 and is left as published.
Help with a bill you cannot pay: Revenues on 01789 260990 or revenues@stratford-dc.gov.uk.
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