Sevenoaks Council Tax Bands 2026/27: Band A-H Charges

A Band D home in Sevenoaks town pays £2,563.23 in council tax for 2026/27, and only £258.48 of that goes to Sevenoaks District Council. Kent County Council takes £1,758.60, the police £285.15, the fire service £99.81, and the town council the rest. Below: every band in all 31 parishes, a calculator for your own bill, why the district has the second highest council tax in Kent, how to check your band, challenge it or claim a discount, and how to make the council spread the bill over twelve months instead of ten. Every figure links to the council or government source it came from.

The quick answer

For 2026/27, the council tax on a Band D home in Sevenoaks town is £2,563.23 a year. The exact figure depends on which parish you live in, because each town and parish council adds its own small precept on top. Across the district the Band D charge runs from £2,452.47 in Brasted to £2,614.68 in Edenbridge, and the full table below gives every band in all 31 parishes. A Band A home pays two thirds of the Band D figure, and a Band H home pays double it. All the figures below come from the Sevenoaks District Council 2026/27 charges schedule.

What the council tax bands actually mean

Every home in England is placed in one of eight bands, A to H. The band is not based on what your house is worth today. It is based on what the property would have sold for on the open market on 1 April 1991. That valuation date has never changed since council tax began in 1993, which is why a modest flat and a large family home can sit closer together than you might expect, and why your band can look out of step with what Sevenoaks homes actually sell for today.

The 1991 value ranges for each band in England, set by the Valuation Office Agency, are:

Band	1991 property 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	More than £320,000

Band D is treated as the standard or reference band. When councils, the police or the government quote a council tax figure, they almost always quote the Band D amount, and every other band is then worked out as a fixed proportion of it. A Band A home always pays 6/9ths of Band D, a Band H home pays 18/9ths (double), and so on. That ratio is set in law and is the same everywhere in England.

Sevenoaks council tax by band for 2026/27

The table below shows the full 2026/27 charge for each band, using Sevenoaks Town as the example because it covers the largest number of households. If you live in another parish, your figure will be a little higher or lower, and the parish list further down shows by how much.

Band	Annual charge (Sevenoaks Town)
A	£1,708.82
B	£1,993.62
C	£2,278.43
D	£2,563.23
E	£3,132.84
F	£3,702.44
G	£4,272.05
H	£5,126.46

Source: Sevenoaks District Council council tax charges 2026/27.

What it means for you: if you are in Band C, which is common for terraced houses and many flats in the district, you are paying just under £2,280 for the year, or around £190 a month over ten instalments. If you are in Band F, a typical figure for a larger detached home, you are paying over £3,700. The gap between bands is fixed, so moving up one band is not a small jump.

How your bill splits between five organisations

The single figure on your bill is collected by Sevenoaks District Council, but the council keeps only a small slice of it. The money is divided between five separate bodies, each of which sets its own charge. Here is the breakdown for a Band D home in 2026/27.

Where it goes	Band D charge	Share
Kent County Council	£1,758.60	about 69%
Kent Police and Crime Commissioner	£285.15	about 11%
Sevenoaks District Council	£258.48	about 10%
Kent Fire and Rescue Service	£99.81	about 4%
Your town or parish council	varies	the rest

By far the largest part, around 69 pence in every pound, goes to Kent County Council for services like adult social care, children’s services, schools support, libraries and most main roads. KCC set its 2026/27 charge at a 3.986% increase, which it described as roughly £5.62 a month more for a Band D household, keeping it below the national 5% cap.

The next slice goes to the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner. For 2026/27 the policing precept rose by the maximum £15 a year for Band D, taking it to £285.15, an increase of about 5.6%, approved by the Kent and Medway Police and Crime Panel on 5 February 2026.

Sevenoaks District Council itself takes only about 10 pence in the pound. The district raised its own share by 2.98% for 2026/27, which it put at an extra £7.47 a year, or 14 pence a week, for a Band D home, taking the district element to £258.48. The council said its budget for the year would be £22.3m, up by more than £2m on the previous year. This is the part that pays for bin collections, planning, parks, leisure and most of the services people think of as local.

Kent Fire and Rescue Service takes the smallest precepting slice, £99.81 at Band D, up £4.95 or 5.22% on the year before, per its own 2026/27 statement.

The final part is your town or parish council, which is why the total differs depending on where in the district you live.

Why your parish changes the figure

Sevenoaks district is made up of 31 towns and parishes, and each parish council adds its own precept on top of the four charges above. That precept funds very local things: allotments, recreation grounds, street furniture, some community facilities. It is usually small compared with the county and police elements, but it explains why two identical Band D homes a few miles apart can have different bills.

The cheapest parish at Band D is Brasted at £2,452.47. The dearest is Edenbridge at £2,614.68, where the town council levies the largest precept in the district.

Every parish in the district, band by band

This is the whole 2026/27 schedule, so you can read your own bill off it: find your parish, then your band.

Source: Sevenoaks District Council council tax charges 2026/27. Figures are the full annual charge, including the county, police, fire, district and parish elements.

What it means for you: the parish part is the only element that changes within the district, and the gap between the cheapest and dearest parish at Band D is £162.21 a year. The band itself matters far more: in Sevenoaks town, moving from Band A to Band B costs £284.80 a year, and the step from Band D to Band E is £569.61.

How Sevenoaks compares with the rest of Kent

Sevenoaks has the second highest council tax of the 12 Kent districts. The government’s own figures put the average Band D bill across the district at £2,522.36 for 2026/27, behind Folkestone and Hythe on £2,538.75 and ahead of Maidstone on £2,502.59. That is £130.84 above the England average of £2,391.52 and £70.36 above the average for shire areas. (MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027, tables 7 and 9)

The reason is not the district council. Every household in Kent pays the same £1,758.60 to the county, £285.15 to the police and £99.81 to the fire service, so the only things that vary from one district to the next are the district council’s own charge and the parish precept. Sevenoaks District Council’s £258.48 is the fourth highest of the 12, well below Folkestone and Hythe’s £313.92 and Maidstone’s £310.68. What lifts the district up the table is the parish tier: parish and town councils here add £120.32 to the average Band D bill, the highest in Kent by £29.48, with Dover next on £90.84 and Canterbury lowest on £21.34. (MHCLG, table 8c)

That pattern also explains where the increase came from this year. The district council’s share went up £7.47, or 2.98%. The parish share of the average bill went up £8.09, or 7.21%. More of the rise in the locally set part of a Sevenoaks bill came from town and parish councils than from the district. (MHCLG, table 8c)

What it means for you: if your bill looks high next to a friend’s elsewhere in Kent, the county, police and fire parts are identical, so the difference is your parish. In Sevenoaks town the parish element is £161.19 at Band D, in Westerham £174.18 and in Edenbridge £212.64, against £50.43 in Brasted.

What reorganisation means for your bill

The council that sets and collects this bill was going to be replaced, and now might not be. In July 2026 the Government decided that Sevenoaks District Council would close in April 2028 and fold into a single West Kent unitary covering Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Malling, Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone, which would have levied the district element above and the far larger Kent County Council element in one bill. On 7 September 2026 ministers paused the whole reorganisation and told Kent’s councils to stop implementing it, so the two-council bill you pay now has no end date attached to it.

The open question is what happens to the amount, and the four current West Kent districts are further apart than the headline suggests. Because they all sit under the same county, police and fire charges, the whole difference between their bills is the district element plus the parish precept. On the district element the four run: Maidstone £310.68, Sevenoaks £258.48, Tonbridge and Malling £252.65, Tunbridge Wells £217.10, a spread of £93.58 at Band D. If a single West Kent charge were struck at Maidstone’s level, a Sevenoaks Band D household would pay £52.20 a year more; at Tunbridge Wells’ level, £41.38 less. (MHCLG, table 8c) The parish part would not be touched either way: the decision replaces the two-tier system of county and district councils, and the Housing Secretary’s letter names only the county, district, borough and city councils being abolished. Town and parish councils are not in it, so the precept that makes Sevenoaks the most expensive parish tier in Kent survives the change. Nothing has yet been published on how the rest will be brought into line. Until 1 April 2028 nothing changes: the 2026/27 charges on this page still stand, and Sevenoaks District Council still sets, splits and collects the bill exactly as set out above.

How to check or challenge your council tax band

If you think your home is in the wrong band, you can look it up and, if needed, ask for it to be reviewed. Banding is handled by the Valuation Office Agency, not by Sevenoaks District Council, so a band challenge goes to the VOA, while a billing question goes to the council.

To check your band, search your postcode on the GOV.UK council tax band tool. It shows your band and your neighbours’ bands, which is useful, because if similar homes in your street are in a lower band than yours, that is the strongest evidence you have a case.

To challenge your band, use the VOA challenge service on GOV.UK. You do not need to pay anyone to do this. Be aware the review can go either way: the VOA could agree and lower your band, leave it unchanged, or in rare cases raise it. The Valuation Office will want evidence, typically the bands and sale prices of similar nearby properties as at the 1991 valuation date.

Sevenoaks District Council points residents to the same official routes and explains the difference between a band challenge and an appeal on its council tax bands, charges and appeals page.

Discounts, exemptions and ways to pay less

Discounts are not applied automatically: you have to tell the council you qualify. The main ones in Sevenoaks are:

• Single person discount of 25%. If you are the only adult living in the property as your main home, you get 25% off. This applies only to your main home, not a second home, per the council’s discounts page.
• People who are “disregarded”. Full time students, apprentices on low pay, some carers, and people who are severely mentally impaired are not counted when working out how many adults live in a home. If everyone in the property is disregarded, the discount can be larger than 25%.
• Disabled band reduction. If a disabled person lives in the home and it has an extra feature for their needs, such as a downstairs bathroom or space for a wheelchair, the bill can be charged at the band below your actual band. Details are on the disabled reduction page.
• Council Tax Reduction. If you are on a low income or receive certain benefits, you may be able to get a reduction in the bill itself, separate from the discounts above. See Council Tax Reduction.
• Exemptions. Some homes pay nothing at all, for example a property left empty because the resident has gone into hospital or a care home, or a home occupied only by full time students.

It is worth knowing the charges that go the other way too. In Sevenoaks, second homes are charged an extra 100% premium from April 2025, effectively doubling the bill, and long term empty homes carry a rising premium: an extra 100% once empty more than a year, 200% after five years, and 300% after ten years, per the council’s empty properties and second homes page.

What it means for you: if you live alone, claim the single person discount. In Sevenoaks town it is worth £427.20 a year in Band A, £640.81 in Band D and £1,281.62 in Band H. If a student or carer lives with you, check whether they should be disregarded. And if you have a disabled resident with an adapted home, the band reduction is often missed.

How to pay, and how to cut the monthly amount

Your bill arrives split into ten monthly payments, not twelve. That is the default set in law: paragraph 2(3) of Schedule 1 to the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 fixes ten instalments for a bill issued before the financial year starts or by 30 April, and the months have to run without a break. So an annual Sevenoaks bill issued in March is paid from April to January, with nothing due in February or March.

You can have twelve instead, and it is a right rather than a favour. Regulation 21(1A), added to those regulations in 2013, says that where a liable person asks in writing to pay by twelve monthly instalments, the council reissues the bill on that basis. Timing decides how many you get: if the new bill is issued by 15 April you get all twelve, and from 16 April you get only the whole months left in the year, so a request made in July gives eight payments rather than twelve. The request can cover next year as well as this one. None of the council’s four council tax pages mention the option.

At Sevenoaks town Band D that is ten payments of £259.23 then £256.00, or twelve of £209.23 then £214.00. The odd pence always land in the first payment, because the regulations round every instalment after it to the nearest pound. The monthly figure falls by £29 at Band A, £42 at Band D and £86 at Band H. Nothing is written off either way: the year’s charge is the same £2,563.23, spread over twelve months rather than ten.

The ways to pay, from the council’s paying page, are Direct Debit with a choice of four dates, the 1st, 8th, 15th or 23rd, set up once and carried from one year to the next; a card payment online, which needs the nine digit account number from your bill, the one starting with a 7, and takes two working days to show if you pay after 5pm; or a bank transfer quoting the same number. Bills can also be switched from post to email.

What it means for you: if it is the size of the monthly payment that is the problem rather than the bill itself, the twelve month split takes £42 a month off a Band D payment and costs nothing to ask for. It is not a discount, so claim any of the discounts above first, then put the instalment request in writing to the council tax team in time for a bill issued by 15 April.

If you fall behind

Miss an instalment and the clock in regulation 23 starts, and it runs faster than most people expect. The council has to send a reminder. You then have seven days from the day it was issued to pay what is overdue. If you do not, the whole unpaid balance of the year’s charge becomes payable seven days after that, and the right to pay by instalments is gone. A second reminder in the same year carries a harder rule: miss any later instalment after it and the full balance falls due the following day, with no third reminder.

After that the council asks the magistrates for a liability order, with its costs added to what you owe, and the order lets it take the money from your wages or from certain benefits, send enforcement agents, or start insolvency proceedings, as its own page sets out. Enforcement agent fees are fixed by law rather than by the council, and they are the part that does the damage: £75 as soon as the case is passed to an agent, another £235 once the agent moves to the enforcement stage, plus 7.5% of anything owed above £1,500, and £110 more, again plus 7.5%, if goods are taken for sale (Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014, Table 1). A full Band D year at £2,563.23 sits well above that £1,500 line, so the percentage fee on its own would add about £80.

The council asks people to contact it as soon as they are struggling, because it can change the payment plan before any of that begins. Its problems paying page lists Citizens Advice, National Debtline and StepChange, although one of its four links, to the Money Advice Service, points at a brand retired in 2021 and now lands on MoneyHelper. What the page does not mention is the council’s own free service, HERO, on 01732 227000 or hero@sevenoaks.gov.uk, which covers debt, rent and mortgage advice, fuel bills and benefits and aims to come back to you within three working days (HERO service page).

Frequently asked questions

What is the Sevenoaks Band D council tax for 2026/27?

In Sevenoaks town it is £2,563.23 for the year. The figure varies by parish across the district, from £2,452.47 in Brasted to £2,614.68 in Edenbridge, because each parish adds its own precept. Every parish and band is in the table above, taken from the council’s 2026/27 charges schedule.

How much is council tax in Sevenoaks per band?

For Sevenoaks town in 2026/27: Band A £1,708.82, Band B £1,993.62, Band C £2,278.43, Band D £2,563.23, Band E £3,132.84, Band F £3,702.44, Band G £4,272.05, Band H £5,126.46. Other parishes differ by a small parish precept.

Which part of the Sevenoaks district pays the most council tax?

Edenbridge, at £2,614.68 for a Band D home in 2026/27, because Edenbridge Town Council sets the district’s largest parish precept. Westerham is next at £2,576.22, then Sevenoaks town at £2,563.23. The lowest is Brasted at £2,452.47, so the whole district spread at Band D is £162.21 a year.

Is council tax in Sevenoaks high compared with the rest of Kent?

Yes. At an average of £2,522.36 at Band D for 2026/27 it is the second highest of the 12 Kent districts, behind Folkestone and Hythe on £2,538.75, and £130.84 above the England average of £2,391.52. The district council’s own charge, £258.48, is only the fourth highest in Kent. What pushes the district up is the parish tier: town and parish councils here add £120.32 to the average Band D bill, the most of any Kent district. (MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027)

Where does my Sevenoaks council tax go?

About 69% goes to Kent County Council, about 11% to Kent Police, about 10% to Sevenoaks District Council, about 4% to Kent Fire and Rescue, and the remainder to your town or parish council. At Band D that is £1,758.60 to KCC, £285.15 to the police, £258.48 to the district, £99.81 to the fire service, plus the parish element.

How do I check what council tax band my house is in?

Search your postcode on the GOV.UK band checker. It shows your band and your neighbours’ bands free of charge.

How do I challenge my Sevenoaks council tax band?

Use the VOA challenge service on GOV.UK. The Valuation Office Agency, not the council, sets bands. You do not need to pay a company to do this, and a review can lower, keep or raise your band, so gather evidence from similar nearby homes first.

Can I get a discount on my Sevenoaks council tax?

Yes. If you live alone you can claim a 25% single person discount. Other discounts and exemptions exist for students, carers, disabled residents and people on low incomes, listed on the council’s discounts and reductions pages.

Can I pay my Sevenoaks council tax over 12 months?

Yes. Ten monthly payments from April to January is only the default. If you ask the council in writing, it has to reissue your bill over twelve months under regulation 21(1A) of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992. Ask in time for the new bill to be issued by 15 April and you get all twelve; later in the year you get only the whole months remaining. At Sevenoaks town Band D it takes the monthly payment from £256.00 to £214.00, as set out above.

What happens if I miss a Sevenoaks council tax payment?

The council sends a reminder and you have seven days from the day it was issued to pay. If you do not, the rest of the year’s charge becomes payable seven days later and you lose the right to pay in instalments. After a second reminder in the same year, any further missed payment makes the whole balance due the next day. Contact the council tax team before it reaches court, and the council’s free HERO service on 01732 227000 gives debt and benefits advice.

Sources

• Sevenoaks District Council, council tax charges 2026/27 (all bands, all parishes)
• Sevenoaks District Council, council tax bands, charges and appeals
• Sevenoaks District Council, 2026/27 budget news (district element +2.98%)
• Sevenoaks District Council, discounts and empty properties and second homes
• Kent County Council, 2026/27 budget and council tax (Band D £1,758.60, +3.986%)
• Kent Police and Crime Commissioner, setting the budget (Band D £285.15, +£15)
• Kent Fire and Rescue Service, council tax 2026/27 (Band D £99.81)
• MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027 (tables 7, 8b to 8e and 9: Kent comparisons)
• Sevenoaks District Council, paying council tax, problems paying your council tax and the HERO advice service
• Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992, Schedule 1 (ten instalments, twelve on request, how the pence are rounded) and regulation 23 (reminders and losing the right to instalments)
• Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014, Schedule, Table 1 (enforcement agent fees)
• Valuation Office Agency / GOV.UK, how council tax bands are assessed, check your band and challenge your band

Image: “Sevenoaks District Council Offices” by Richard Kelly, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sevenoaks_District_Council_Offices.jpg).