The cheapest and most expensive council tax bills in England have been revealed - and eight of the 10 lowest demands have been issued by London boroughs.
As expected, Wandsworth has set the lowest council tax in the country – a band D bill of £990 from April, though this averages £997 when the homes in the borough that also pay a Wimbledon Common levy are included.
Westminster, like Wandsworth now a Labour-run borough, is the second cheapest in the country with an average bill of £1,019.
The City of London Corporation, which is not politically aligned, is the third cheapest on £1,274 and Hammersmith and Fulham council, also a Labour borough, is the fourth cheapest with a bill of £1,451.
All London council tax bills include London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan’s “precept” of £490 that goes to the Greater London Authority to help fund the Metropolitan police, London fire brigade and Transport for London.
The figures, revealed by The Standard in February, were confirmed on Thursday by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
Across England, bills have risen by an average of five per cent. Rutland set the most expensive council tax, at £2,671.
The most expensive council tax in the capital has been set by Kingston council – an average demand of £2,489.
This is the 30th highest bill in England.
According to the MHCLG, the average demand across England will be £ 2,280, up £109 on 2024/25.
In London, the average is £1,982 - an increase of £89 or 4.7 per cent.
The Tories plan to use the council tax increases as a way to attack Labour during the forthcoming local elections that are happening outside London.
Launching the Conservative campaign on Thursday, party leader Kemi Badenoch criticised Labour's record in Government and accused the party of reducing bin collections and hiking taxes.
"If you vote Labour, you get trash," she claimed.
But she acknowledged it would be a difficult set of polls for the party and they would lose "every single" council it won in 2021 if the general election results were repeated in the upcoming local votes.
"We are the only credible choice: Lib Dems will wreck your public services, Reform has no experience running anything, Greens will run councils into the ground and Labour will spend, tax and waste your money, just like they always do," she added.
As part of the campaign to win over voters, the Tories are preparing to run attack clips of Sir Keir Starmer’s 2023 pledge that, if he had been in Government at the time, he would have frozen council tax.
Ms Badenoch told campaigners: "These elections will be tough, but we are up for the fight.
"We are building a gold-standard campaign machine, but we need you and all our brilliant volunteers and supporters to get out and help. Every leaflet, every conversation, every vote counts."
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