Every Harrow band, from £1,674.05 at A to £5,022.14 at H, up 4.81%. Where the money goes, what the police precept added, and how to challenge your band.
A band D bill in Harrow is £2,511.07 for 2026/27, up £115.21 on last year. Harrow keeps £2,000.56 of that. The rest, £510.51, goes to the Greater London Authority, and most of this year’s GLA rise is the policing precept. There is no parish or town precept anywhere in the borough, so the bill splits two ways and no two Harrow addresses pay a different headline rate for the same band.
Everything below comes from Harrow Council’s council tax bands page and its Council Tax Guide 2026/27, checked on 2 September 2026.
Every band, A to H
| Band | 1991 value | 2025/26 | 2026/27 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Up to £40,000 | £1,597.24 | £1,674.05 | +£76.81 |
| B | £40,001 to £52,000 | £1,863.45 | £1,953.05 | +£89.60 |
| C | £52,001 to £68,000 | £2,129.65 | £2,232.06 | +£102.41 |
| D | £68,001 to £88,000 | £2,395.86 | £2,511.07 | +£115.21 |
| E | £88,001 to £120,000 | £2,928.27 | £3,069.09 | +£140.82 |
| F | £120,001 to £160,000 | £3,460.69 | £3,627.10 | +£166.41 |
| G | £160,001 to £320,000 | £3,993.10 | £4,185.12 | +£192.02 |
| H | Over £320,000 | £4,791.72 | £5,022.14 | +£230.42 |
Sources: the current charges are on the council’s bands page; last year’s come from its own all years to date table.
The percentage rise is identical in every band, at 4.81%, because the council sets a band D figure and derives the rest as fixed fractions of it: six ninths at band A, nine ninths at D, eighteen ninths at H. A band H household pays exactly three times a band A household, every year, whatever happens to the budget.
Where the money actually goes
For a band D property:
| Who | 2025/26 | 2026/27 | Change | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London Borough of Harrow | £1,905.48 | £2,000.56 | +£95.08 | +4.99% |
| Greater London Authority | £490.38 | £510.51 | +£20.13 | +4.10% |
| Total | £2,395.86 | £2,511.07 | +£115.21 | +4.81% |
Harrow’s own 4.99% is made of two separate decisions: a 2.99% general increase and a 2% adult social care precept. The adult social care share used to be printed as its own line on the bill. It is not required to be shown separately any more, so the bill now reads as one Harrow figure. The council sets that out in a footnote to its own guide.
The GLA’s £20.13 is not spread evenly either. Split four ways:
- Metropolitan Police (MOPAC): £319.13 to £334.13, up £15.00
- London Fire Brigade: £71.72 to £76.85, up £5.13
- Transport for London: £77.09, unchanged
- The GLA itself: £22.44, unchanged
So the entire GLA rise is policing and fire. Neither TfL’s share nor City Hall’s own share moved a penny. Harrow Council states it has no influence over any of it.
Checking and challenging your band
Bands are still based on what a property was worth on 1 April 1991, not on what it is worth now. That is why two similar Harrow houses can sit in different bands, and why an extension does not move you up a band until the property is next sold.
- Check your band on the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax band search. It is free and takes a postcode.
- Challenge it through the VOA, not the council. Harrow cannot change your band. The number is 03000 501 501.
- Keep paying while you challenge. The council is explicit: the bill on your last statement stays due until you are told otherwise.
If your home has been adapted for a disabled resident, or a resident uses a wheelchair indoors, Disabled Band Relief can move the bill down a full band. It is applied for at harrow.gov.uk/dbr.
Discounts and who does not count
The bill assumes two adults in the property.
- Single person discount: 25% off. Apply at harrow.gov.uk/spd.
- Disregarded residents are not counted at all when the council totals up the adults. That includes full-time students, people with a severe mental impairment, and 18 and 19 year olds still in or just out of school. A discount only applies if every resident adult, or all but one, is disregarded.
- Council Tax Support is for low incomes. You cannot claim it if you have more than £16,000 in savings, or if you are a full-time student, though a non-student partner can claim.
- Exceptional financial hardship has its own discretionary route, through the council’s protection fund.
Two deadlines worth writing down. If a discount is shown that you should not have, you must tell the council within 21 days, or risk a financial penalty. The same 21 days applies to any change that affects your entitlement.
Empty homes and second homes cost more, sometimes far more
Harrow charges some of the steepest empty property premiums available:
- Empty and substantially unfurnished for more than 12 months: 100% premium, so 200% of the normal charge.
- Empty for at least 5 years: 200% premium, so 300% of the charge.
- Empty for 10 years or more: 300% premium, so 400% of the charge.
- Unoccupied but substantially furnished, which is to say a second home, since 1 April 2025: 100% premium, so 200% of the charge.
At band D that means a house empty for a decade is billed £10,044.28 a year. There are exemptions, including for properties genuinely marketed for sale or letting, and some are time limited. Details are at harrow.gov.uk/emptypremium.
One thing the council states clearly and people get wrong: a property being uninhabitable or mid-renovation does not exempt you. The full charge stays payable unless the VOA removes the property from the valuation list altogether.
More Harrow local information
- Harrow bin collection days, including the £69 garden waste charge and its Council Tax Support discount
- Parking in Harrow
- Roadworks and travel
- Harrow house prices
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