Band D in Crowborough is £2,777.14 for 2026/27. The full A to H table, the four precepts inside it, and why Wealden's own share did not rise at all this year.
A band D home in Crowborough pays £2,777.14 in council tax in 2026/27. That is the fifth highest of the 42 parishes in Wealden district, and £196.31 of it is Crowborough Town Council’s own precept.
The part most people never see is that only one of the five bodies taking a share put its price up by nothing at all. Wealden District Council froze its own element at £221.14, unchanged from 2025/26. The rise on your bill came from the county council, the police and the fire authority.
All figures below come from Wealden District Council, East Sussex County Council, the Sussex Police and Crime Panel and East Sussex Fire Authority, and were checked on 31 August 2026.
The full band A to H table for Crowborough
| Band | Property value in 1991 | Crowborough 2026/27 |
|---|---|---|
| A | Up to £40,000 | £1,851.43 |
| B | £40,001 to £52,000 | £2,160.00 |
| C | £52,001 to £68,000 | £2,468.58 |
| D | £68,001 to £88,000 | £2,777.14 |
| E | £88,001 to £120,000 | £3,394.28 |
| F | £120,001 to £160,000 | £4,011.42 |
| G | £160,001 to £320,000 | £4,628.57 |
| H | Over £320,000 | £5,554.28 |
Source: Wealden District Council, Council Tax charges by parish. The band values are 1991 values, not what a house is worth now.
One caution about that council page. It prints the band ranges itself, and two of them are wrong. It gives band B as “£41,001 to £52,000” and band D as “£68,002 to £88,000”. The government’s own figures are £40,001 and £68,001. As printed, Wealden’s table leaves a £1,000 slice of 1991 values in no band at all. The charges themselves are unaffected.
Who takes what
Five bodies share the bill. Four of them charge the same across the whole district, and the fifth is your town or parish council.
| Authority | Band D 2026/27 | Change on 2025/26 |
|---|---|---|
| East Sussex County Council | £1,960.29 | up 4.99% |
| Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner | £281.91 | up £15.00, or 5.6% |
| Wealden District Council | £221.14 | no change |
| East Sussex Fire Authority | £117.49 | up £5.00 |
| Crowborough Town Council | £196.31 | see below |
| Total for a band D home in Crowborough | £2,777.14 |
The county council’s 4.99% is made up of 2.99% general council tax and 2% for adult social care. Its band D figure of £1,960.29 comes from its own council tax precepts report, and splits into £1,630.98 of general council tax and £329.31 for adult social care, as published by neighbouring Rother District Council. The county says the rise is £1.80 a week on a band D home. It is also borrowing an extra £70m in exceptional financial support this year to balance its budget, one of 35 English councils to do so.
The police increase of £15 was the maximum allowed without a referendum, agreed by the Sussex Police and Crime Panel on 30 January 2026. Sussex had the seventh lowest police precept of any force in England and Wales at £266.91 before the rise.
Wealden’s freeze is on its own spending plans page, which puts the district element at £221.14 in both years, a 0% change, and describes it as £4.25 a week. The district’s basic council tax requirement still rose, from £15.336m to £15.631m, because the tax base grew. What moved inside that budget is stark: retained business rates fell by £4.8m, government grants rose by £4.22m, and the revenue contribution to capital dropped by £10.454m.
Why the bill differs from village to village
Everything except the parish precept is identical across Wealden. So the whole spread in the district, £306.61 from top to bottom, is town and parish councils.
A band D home in a Wealden parish with no parish council pays £2,580.83. Two parishes are in that position, Little Horsted and Selmeston, and their band D is the lowest in the district. Every other bill is that figure plus the parish share.
| Parish | Parish share at band D | Total band D |
|---|---|---|
| Forest Row | £306.61 | £2,887.44 |
| Uckfield | £236.92 | £2,817.75 |
| Hailsham | £218.18 | £2,799.01 |
| Crowborough | £196.31 | £2,777.14 |
| Polegate | £179.89 | £2,760.72 |
| Rotherfield | £144.61 | £2,725.44 |
| Mayfield and Five Ashes | £124.05 | £2,704.88 |
| Wadhurst | £116.75 | £2,697.58 |
| Heathfield and Waldron | £100.76 | £2,681.59 |
| Hartfield | £99.83 | £2,680.66 |
| Buxted | £77.98 | £2,658.81 |
| Little Horsted and Selmeston | £0.00 | £2,580.83 |
Wealden does not publish the parish share as a figure. These are the council’s own band D totals with the £2,580.83 taken off, and each one matches that parish’s precept divided by its tax base to the penny. Forest Row costs a band D household £110.30 a year more than Crowborough, and £306.61 more than living in Little Horsted.
Crowborough Town Council’s precept is £1,834,563 for 2026/27, up from £1,748,757, a rise of 4.9%. Its budget is on the council’s larger parish expenditure page, which by law must publish estimates for any parish raising more than £140,000. Twelve Wealden parishes qualify. Crowborough plans to spend £2,339,543, offset by £480,830 of income and £44,150 drawn from reserves.
Parish precepts are not capped by the referendum rules that apply to the district and the county, so a town council can raise its share by any amount it votes for.
Checking and challenging your band
Bands were set on what a property was worth on 1 April 1991, and nothing since then counts. To find the band on a specific address, use the Valuation Office Agency’s check your band service.
You have a legal right to challenge the band if:
- you have been paying council tax on the property for less than six months
- the VOA changed the band in the last six months
- something has changed that affects the property
- you want a property added to or removed from the list
Challenges go to the VOA, not to Wealden. The council links the process from its band page.
Discounts and help
Wealden runs the usual national discounts. The ones worth knowing:
- Single person discount, 25%, if you are the only adult in the property. It applies to your main home only, never to a second home or an empty one.
- Disregards, where another adult in the house is not counted: full-time students, student nurses, apprentices paid under £195 a week, and carers living in the same home who are not the person’s spouse, partner or child under 18.
- School leavers: someone who turns 18 while child benefit is still payable is disregarded until that ends. If they leave education after 30 April aged 18 or 19, they are disregarded until 1 November of that year.
- Disabled band reduction, where a home has been adapted with an extra room, an extra bathroom or kitchen, or space for indoor wheelchair use. Wealden says a separate WC without a bath or shower does not count.
- Council Tax Reduction for low incomes. The scheme for pensioners is set in law and the council cannot change it; the working-age scheme is set locally by Wealden and can change each year, though not mid-year.
- Exceptional Hardship Payments for people already on Council Tax Reduction facing short-term extreme hardship.
One practical point the council buries at the top of a page. You can spread the bill over 12 monthly instalments instead of 10, but you have to write or email to ask. Wealden will not accept the request over the phone.
Second homes and empty property premiums
Wealden charges a 100% premium on second homes, and on homes that have been empty and substantially unfurnished for more than a year. The empty home premium then escalates:
- 100% extra for homes empty between 1 and 5 years
- 200% extra between 5 and 10 years
- 300% extra after 10 years
The clock does not reset when a property changes hands. If it was empty before you bought it, the premium still applies once it passes a year.
There are exceptions, set out on the council’s premiums page. A home actively marketed for sale or for let escapes the premium for up to 12 months from the date it was first listed. To claim it you need a letter from the agent and a live web link to the listing. After probate is granted the exception runs for 12 months or until the property is sold. Job-related dwellings and annexes forming part of the main home are also excepted.
Also on Crowborough Today
- Crowborough bin collection days, including bank holidays and the tip
- Parking in Crowborough, including which car parks are free and for how long
- Crowborough house prices
- Roadworks and travel
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