Band D in Windsor and Maidenhead is £1,936.94 this year, after a 7.49% rise the government let the council make. Full A to H table, every parish compared.
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead put council tax up 7.49% this year, half as much again as the 4.99% ceiling most English councils work to. It was allowed to, by ministers, and it has been given the same freedom for the next two years as well. Below is the full band A to H table for every part of the borough, what the extra money is for, and every discount worth checking.
The quick answer
For 2026/27, a band D home in Windsor or Maidenhead town pays £1,936.94. Band A is £1,291.29 and band H is £3,873.88. Parish areas pay more: Datchet is the dearest at £2,052.66 at band D, Shottesbrooke the cheapest at £1,894.00. Of the band D bill, £1,504.41 is the Royal Borough, £298.28 the police, £91.31 the fire service and £42.94 a special expenses charge on the two towns.
Windsor and Maidenhead: the full band table
These are the charges for the unparished areas, which means Windsor town and Maidenhead town. If you live in a village with a parish council, use the table further down instead.
| Band | 1991 property value | 2026/27 charge |
|---|---|---|
| A | Up to £40,000 | £1,291.29 |
| B | £40,001 to £52,000 | £1,506.52 |
| C | £52,001 to £68,000 | £1,721.72 |
| D | £68,001 to £88,000 | £1,936.94 |
| E | £88,001 to £120,000 | £2,367.36 |
| F | £120,001 to £160,000 | £2,797.80 |
| G | £160,001 to £320,000 | £3,228.23 |
| H | More than £320,000 | £3,873.88 |
Source: the council’s Windsor (unparished) and Maidenhead (unparished) band pages, which carry identical figures, and its council tax guide 2026-2027.
Those 1991 valuation bands are not a typo. Every English home is still banded on what it was worth on 1 April 1991.
Every parish compared
The council publishes each of its 17 band areas on a separate page. Here they are in one place, ranked by what a band D home pays, with the parish element shown separately.
| Area | Parish element, band D | Band D total | Band A | Band H |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Datchet | £158.66 | £2,052.66 | £1,368.43 | £4,105.32 |
| White Waltham | £146.41 | £2,040.41 | £1,360.27 | £4,080.82 |
| Horton | £114.14 | £2,008.14 | £1,338.75 | £4,016.28 |
| Eton | £85.25 | £1,979.25 | £1,319.49 | £3,958.50 |
| Wraysbury | £81.92 | £1,975.92 | £1,317.27 | £3,951.84 |
| Old Windsor | £73.53 | £1,967.53 | £1,311.68 | £3,935.06 |
| Cox Green | £71.89 | £1,965.89 | £1,310.59 | £3,931.78 |
| Sunningdale | £67.92 | £1,961.92 | £1,307.94 | £3,923.84 |
| Bisham | £66.57 | £1,960.57 | £1,307.04 | £3,921.14 |
| Sunninghill and Ascot | £61.34 | £1,955.34 | £1,303.55 | £3,910.68 |
| Cookham | £60.56 | £1,954.56 | £1,303.03 | £3,909.12 |
| Bray | £59.24 | £1,953.24 | £1,302.15 | £3,906.48 |
| Waltham St Lawrence | £49.17 | £1,943.17 | £1,295.44 | £3,886.34 |
| Windsor and Maidenhead towns | £42.94 | £1,936.94 | £1,291.29 | £3,873.88 |
| Hurley | £39.33 | £1,933.33 | £1,288.88 | £3,866.66 |
| Shottesbrooke | none | £1,894.00 | £1,262.66 | £3,788.00 |
The spread between the top and the bottom of that table is £158.66 a year at band D, and all of it is parish precept. Everyone in the borough pays the same £1,894.00 for the county, police and fire services; what differs is what the parish adds on top.
Shottesbrooke is the outlier because it levies no precept at all. Windsor and Maidenhead have no parish council either, but their residents still pay £42.94, a special expenses precept charged under section 35 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 for services the borough provides in the two towns.
Why the bill went up 7.49%
Council tax rises above 4.99% normally need a local referendum. The Royal Borough did not hold one. The government gave it a bespoke higher threshold instead.
Cabinet approved the figures on 24 February 2026. Its own resolution sets out the arithmetic: a £76.84 increase in base council tax, taking the borough’s share to £1,263.90, plus £27.99 on the adult social care precept, taking that to £240.51. Together that is £1,504.41 at band D, a rise of 7.49% (2026/27 Budget, Cabinet).
This is the second year running. In 2025/26 the council was allowed 8.99%.
The reason is the borough’s own history. Councillor Jones told Cabinet that “historic decisions to cut council tax over successive years had left the Royal Borough receiving over £30 million less per year than councils charging the national average council tax”. The council is now running on Exceptional Financial Support, which is government permission to borrow to pay for day-to-day services. The budget shows a capitalisation adjustment of £48.754m for 2026/27, up from £35.412m the year before.
The freedom does not stop this year. In a December 2025 provisional settlement the government proposed that six authorities, the Royal Borough among them, be allowed to exceed 4.99% without a referendum in 2027/28 and 2028/29 as well. The six were picked because they have the lowest council tax levels of any upper tier authority in England (Maidenhead Advertiser).
What makes up a band D bill
| Element | 2025/26 | 2026/27 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Borough, general | £1,187.06 | £1,263.90 | +£76.84 |
| Adult social care precept | £212.52 | £240.51 | +£27.99 |
| Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner | £283.28 | £298.28 | +£15.00 |
| Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue | £86.31 | £91.31 | +£5.00 |
| Total before parish and special expenses | £1,769.17 | £1,894.00 | +£124.83 |
There is one change to how the bill reads this year. The adult social care precept is no longer shown on a separate line, having been merged into the general precept. Bills from 2016/17 to 2024/25 still show it separately. The money is ring-fenced for adult social care either way, and the precept is expected to raise £17.369m in 2026/27, up from £15.140m.
A smaller line most people never notice: the Environment Agency’s flood defence levy on the borough is £174,016 this year, up from £166,649. For a Thames-side borough that number buys the flood warning system and river maintenance from Cookham down to Datchet.
The parish rises, and the one that stands out
Parish councils set their own precepts and the borough just collects them. Most went up by five or six per cent. Two did not.
| Parish | 2025/26 precept | 2026/27 precept | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Datchet | £264,787 | £361,821 | +36.7% |
| Wraysbury | £146,496 | £176,810 | +20.7% |
| Sunninghill and Ascot | £404,377 | £443,876 | +9.8% |
| Windsor and Maidenhead towns | £1,478,467 | £1,604,350 | +8.5% |
| Horton | £49,805 | £53,836 | +8.1% |
| Cookham | £168,196 | £180,811 | +7.5% |
| White Waltham | £181,692 | £193,203 | +6.3% |
| Bray | £255,806 | £271,592 | +6.2% |
| Waltham St Lawrence | £33,000 | £35,000 | +6.1% |
| Bisham | £49,567 | £52,388 | +5.7% |
| Hurley | £38,500 | £40,620 | +5.5% |
| Cox Green | £206,943 | £217,663 | +5.2% |
| Eton | £154,735 | £162,472 | +5.0% |
| Old Windsor | £176,805 | £178,308 | +0.9% |
| Sunningdale | £260,811 | £260,811 | no change |
Precept figures are from the council tax guide; the percentages are ours. A parish precept is not capped, which is why Datchet could add more than a third in one year and Sunningdale could freeze.
Windsor and Maidenhead may get town councils
The £42.94 special expenses line could be replaced by a parish precept before long. The Royal Borough launched a consultation on 5 August 2026 on creating town councils for both Windsor and Maidenhead, which we covered when the consultation opened. If town councils are created they would set their own precepts, in the way Datchet and Bray already do.
Checking and challenging your band
Your band is set by the Valuation Office Agency, not the council, and the council cannot change it. Two routes:
- The council’s own lookup shows the band for any address in the borough: mol.rbwm.gov.uk.
- GOV.UK’s band search gives the same information nationally, and is the place to start a formal challenge.
You can only challenge in limited circumstances, mainly if the property has changed physically, if the band changed after a sale, or within six months of becoming the taxpayer. You must keep paying the current bill while a challenge is open.
Discounts and reductions
| Reduction | Who it is for |
|---|---|
| Single person discount, 25% | Only one resident aged 18 or over |
| Disabled band reduction | The property has an extra bathroom or kitchen, indoor wheelchair space, or a room used mainly to meet a disabled resident’s needs |
| Student exemption | Property occupied only by students |
| Severe mental impairment | Disregarded as a resident; a property occupied only by such residents is exempt |
| Carer discount | Caring for someone with a disability who is not your partner or a child under 18 |
| Care leaver age | 18 and 19 year olds who have just left school |
| Apprentices and youth trainees | Disregarded as residents |
| Probate exemption | Executors are liable and probate is awaited or was granted less than six months ago |
| Annexe reduction | Self-contained annexe occupied by a relative |
There are two the council does not advertise loudly.
Foster carers registered with the council are reimbursed the whole of their council tax, as part of the borough’s package of incentives for fostering.
If you receive council tax reduction, your increase is capped at 4.99%. Because the borough went to 7.49%, it is making a one-off discretionary “cash payment” on bills from 1 April to hold those households to the standard cap. It applies to the Royal Borough’s element only, not to parish, police or fire charges, and it appears as a line on the bill.
If you are struggling, the council asks you to contact it before you miss a payment. The recovery ladder is quick: a reminder, then seven days to pay before you lose the right to instalments and the whole year’s balance falls due, then a court summons and a liability order with costs on top.
Empty homes and second homes: the premium doubles, then trebles
The Royal Borough charges some of the steeper premiums in the country (premiums for second homes and long term empty properties):
- Empty and unfurnished 12 months or more: 100% premium. You pay double.
- Five years: 200% premium. You pay triple.
- Ten years or more: 300% premium. You pay quadruple.
- Second homes, empty but furnished: 100% premium from day one. Since 1 April 2025 the council can charge this as soon as the property becomes unoccupied, regardless of how long it stays that way.
The mandatory government exceptions include a property actively marketed for sale or to let, for up to 12 months; one awaiting probate, for 12 months from the grant; job related dwellings; occupied caravan pitches and boat moorings; seasonal homes where year-round occupation is barred; and, for empty homes only, a property undergoing major repairs, for up to 12 months. You have to claim them, and the premium is legally payable until the council agrees to remove it.
What this page does not cover
The council does not publish a band-by-band table for its council tax support scheme, so the value of a low income reduction is not set out here. We have also not printed the parish band D charges for 2025/26, because the council’s current guide gives the parish precept totals for both years but the band D figure only for this year, and we would rather leave a gap than derive one.
Also on this site: Windsor bin collection days, parking in Windsor and Windsor house prices.
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