One in 10 households faces being hit with £3,000 council tax bills for the first time under Labour.
Sir Keir Starmer has given local authorities the green light to raise council tax by nearly three times the rate of inflation next year.
At a national level, maintaining the 5 per cent cap could raise the average levy by £109 – from £2,171 in 2024-25 to £2,280 by April.
Nearly 2.5 million families in England face paying £3,000 in 2025-26, more than 436,000 currently pay that much already.
Once a burden borne only by those in the priciest postcodes, this would represent 9.6 per cent of all dwellings.
It comes amid fears of higher council tax bills being applied to larger homes.
Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, was asked in the Commons last week whether the Government would consider imposing extra council tax bands on larger properties.
Rather than ruling the move out, he said such matters would be considered as part of the local government finance settlement, expected in January.
He also refused to rule out a wholesale revaluation of people’s homes, which could see people paying more if they have extended their houses or made other improvements.
Many will only recently have started setting £2,000 aside for their council tax.
Some 10.1 million homeowners paid £2,000 in council tax last year, making up 39.6 per cent of the roughly 25.6 million homes across England liable for the charge, according to The Telegraph’s analysis of Value Office Agency data.
But if all local authorities were to raise rates by 5 per cent next year, this number would rise to 12.2 million, taking the share of those paying £2,000 a year up to almost half of all homes (47.9 per cent).
It would also see the typical toll in Rutland, the steepest in the country, rise by £127 to hit a record £2,670.
Each billing local authority sets the Band D rate owed by a mid-range property. A multiplier is then applied according to houses’ equivalent value in 1991: the cheapest homes, in Band A, pay just two-thirds of this charge, while the most expensive in Band H pay double.
This means many have actually been stuck with £3,000 bills for years already, and even dearer tariffs are fast approaching.
Six years ago, not a single property in England faced a bill of more than £4,000. By 2024-25, this had become reality for 139,000 homeowners – a tally that could almost triple to 375,000 households next April.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was approached for comment.
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