Band D in Epsom and Ewell is £2,530.84 this year, and the borough keeps just £239.85 of it. Every band A to H, what rose, and the discounts that cut the bill.
A band D household in Epsom and Ewell is billed £2,530.84 for 2026/27. Of that, Epsom and Ewell Borough Council keeps £239.85, which works out at £4.61 a week. The other 91 per cent is the borough collecting money for Surrey County Council and Surrey Police.
Two things make this borough’s bill unusual, and both are in your favour when you compare it with the rest of Surrey. There are no town or parish councils here at all, so there is no fourth line on the bill. And the borough’s own share is one of the lower ones in the county.
Below is the full band A to H table, who takes each pound, what went up and by how much, and the discounts that change what you personally owe.
There is also an end date on all of this. Epsom and Ewell Borough Council and Surrey County Council are both abolished on 1 April 2027, so this is the last bill either will set.
The quick answer
- Band D: £2,530.84. Band A pays £1,687.23 and band H pays £5,061.68.
- Surrey County Council takes 77p of every £1. Surrey Police takes 14p. The borough keeps 9p.
- Surrey County Council put its share up 4.99 per cent, which is £1.77 a week on band D.
- Surrey Police added exactly £15.00 to band D.
- The borough added £6.93, a rise of 2.98 per cent.
- No parish precept. Epsom and Ewell has no town or parish councils.
- Maximum help is 80 per cent. Everyone pays at least a fifth of the bill.
Every band, 2026/27
| Band | Surrey County Council | Surrey Police | Epsom and Ewell | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,292.28 | £235.05 | £159.90 | £1,687.23 |
| B | £1,507.66 | £274.22 | £186.55 | £1,968.43 |
| C | £1,723.04 | £313.40 | £213.20 | £2,249.64 |
| D | £1,938.42 | £352.57 | £239.85 | £2,530.84 |
| E | £2,369.18 | £430.92 | £293.15 | £3,093.25 |
| F | £2,799.94 | £509.27 | £346.45 | £3,655.66 |
| G | £3,230.70 | £587.62 | £399.75 | £4,218.07 |
| H | £3,876.84 | £705.14 | £479.70 | £5,061.68 |
Source: the council’s council tax charges page and its 2026-27 council tax leaflet. All three parts add up exactly to the total in every band, and every band sits in the correct legal ratio to band D. That is not always true of a council’s published table, so it is worth saying that this one checks out.
There is no ninth row, because there is nothing else to charge. Most Surrey addresses also pay a town or parish precept. Epsom and Ewell is entirely unparished, which the government’s own council tax statistics confirm: its band D figure including parish precepts and its figure excluding them are the same number, £239.85.
Where the money goes
The borough’s own leaflet puts it plainly. For every £1 of council tax, Surrey County Council receives 77p, Surrey Police receives 14p, and Epsom and Ewell Borough Council receives just 9p.
That 9p is a small slice of a small budget. The borough expects income of about £51.5 million in 2026/27, and council tax provides only £8.2 million of it. The rest comes from grants and housing benefit subsidy, fees and charges, property rents and retained business rates.
The leaflet then breaks the borough’s £4.61 weekly band D share down by service:
- £2.25 preventing homelessness
- £1.69 parks and open spaces
- £1.55 other services
- £1.05 refuse collection
- 72p planning and place development
- 66p venues, sports and leisure
- 57p personal social services
- 46p local democracy
- 36p environmental health, licensing and cemeteries
- minus £4.70 for land, property, highways, car parks and external funding
That last line is negative because those services make a net contribution rather than costing money. Car parking income is doing real work in this budget.
What went up, and by how much
Each of the three authorities set its own increase.
Surrey County Council: 4.99 per cent, including the adult social care precept. Its leaflet describes this as £1.77 a week more for the average band D payer, and blames a £50 million reduction in government funding. It is candid that this is “our final budget before the move to two new unitary councils in April 2027”.
Surrey Police: £15.00 on band D, taking it from £337.57 to £352.57. The Police and Crime Commissioner’s leaflet says the force needs £5.5 million of savings this year alone.
Epsom and Ewell Borough Council: £6.93 on band D, from £232.92 to £239.85. That is a rise of 2.98 per cent, just under the 3 per cent referendum threshold that applies to district councils. The figures are in the government’s Table 10 local authority data.
How that compares in Surrey
Because Surrey County Council and Surrey Police charge the same amount everywhere in the county, the only thing that separates one Surrey district’s bill from another is the district’s own share, plus any parish precept. On that measure Epsom and Ewell sits sixth of eleven.
| District | 2026/27 share | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Woking | £307.05 | +3.00% |
| Surrey Heath | £268.07 | +2.97% |
| Elmbridge | £265.88 | +3.00% |
| Reigate and Banstead | £264.87 | no change |
| Tandridge | £259.86 | +2.99% |
| Epsom and Ewell | £239.85 | +2.98% |
| Spelthorne | £235.50 | +2.90% |
| Waverley | £220.25 | +2.99% |
| Mole Valley | £217.59 | +2.99% |
| Guildford | £210.19 | +2.99% |
| Runnymede | £202.00 | +2.99% |
Calculated from the government’s Table 10 data. Reigate and Banstead is the outlier: it froze its share at £264.87 while every other Surrey district went up by close to the maximum.
Against the country as a whole, the Epsom and Ewell band D bill of £2,530.84 is £139.32 above the England average of £2,391.52.
Checking and challenging your band
Bands are set by the Valuation Office Agency, not the council, and they are based on what the property was worth on 1 April 1991. Not today.
| Band | 1991 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 |
You can look up any address free on GOV.UK, and challenge a band through the VOA’s challenge service.
The council makes one point that people get wrong: keep paying while you appeal. If the challenge succeeds, the VOA tells the council directly, a revised bill is issued and any overpayment is refunded.
Discounts and reductions
Single person discount
If you are the only adult aged 18 or over living in the property as your main home, the bill drops by 25 per cent. Being away temporarily, on holiday or working away, does not count.
Students
- A property occupied only by full time students is exempt.
- Two adults, one of them a full time student: a 25 per cent discount.
- Two or more non-student adults: full council tax, even with a student in the house.
A full time course means at least one academic year, attendance for at least 24 weeks a year, and an average of at least 21 hours a week. Part time, evening and distance learning do not qualify. The exemption is not applied until the council receives a certificate from the college or university, and it ends when you finish studying, not on graduation day.
Disabled band reduction
If someone in the household needs an extra room, a second bathroom or extra space because of a disability, the bill can be charged at the band below yours. A band A property gets a reduction of five ninths of band D.
Empty homes and second homes
Epsom and Ewell charges some of the steeper empty property premiums available. There is no discount at all once a property becomes empty, and on top of the full bill:
- Empty and substantially unfurnished for more than 1 year: 100 per cent premium
- More than 5 years: 200 per cent premium
- More than 10 years: 300 per cent premium
A ten year empty property therefore pays four times the normal bill. Exceptions apply from 1 April 2026 for armed forces accommodation, annexes, properties actively marketed for sale or let for up to 12 months, probate for up to 12 months, and major repairs for up to 12 months.
Second homes, meaning furnished properties that are not a main home, currently pay the full rate with no discount. A 100 per cent premium starts on 1 April 2027, with its own list of exceptions covering job-related accommodation, caravan pitches, moorings and seasonal homes.
One caution on that page. The council’s empty properties page says the full rate applies to second homes “until 31 March 2026”, then jumps to a premium starting 1 April 2027. Those two dates leave a year unaccounted for. The substance is clear enough, that the premium begins in April 2027, but check with the council before relying on the intervening year.
Help if you are on a low income
Epsom and Ewell replaced Council Tax Support for working age residents in 2021 with a Council Tax Income Discount. To qualify you must be of working age, liable for the council tax, living there as your main home, and hold less than £6,000 in savings.
The discount is banded by household type and monthly income, and the top band is 80 per cent. The council is explicit that every taxpayer still pays at least 20 per cent of the charge, whatever their income. For a single adult, the 80 per cent band runs up to £426 a month.
Residents of pensionable age on a low income go through the separate Council Tax Support scheme instead.
The 2027 change
The borough’s own council tax leaflet ends with a notice about it. From April 2027, Surrey County Council and the eleven district and borough councils are replaced by two unitary councils, East Surrey and West Surrey. Epsom and Ewell goes into East Surrey Council, alongside Elmbridge, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead and Tandridge.
The other six districts, Guildford, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Waverley and Woking, form West Surrey Council, per the Surrey reorganisation hub.
What that means for bills is not yet settled. The five districts joining East Surrey currently charge very different amounts on the district element, from £217.59 in Mole Valley to £265.88 in Elmbridge, with Epsom and Ewell in between at £239.85. A merged authority normally has to bring those onto a single figure over time. No harmonisation schedule has been published.
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