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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/council-tax-stock-of-properties-2022/council-tax-stock-of-properties-statistical-commentary
This release includes statistics on the stock of domestic properties by Council Tax Band and property attributes in England and Wales between 1 April 1993 and 31 March 2022.
The stock of properties at 31 March 2022 was
Up from 26.3 million at 31 March 2021
The largest group of properties by band
In England: 24.0% are Band A
The largest group of properties by band
In Wales: 21.8% are Band C
into the Council Tax Valuation Lists in England and Wales, down from 251,240 in 2020 to 2021.
from the Council Tax Valuation Lists in England and Wales, down from 43,820 in 2020 to 2021.
The statistics in this publication relate to England and Wales only. Property valuations are not carried out by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the valuation law and practice differ from England and Wales.
The statistics are available at national, regional and billing authority level. Some tables are also available at Westminster Parliamentary Constituency level, middle layer super output area (MSOA), lower layer super output area level (LSOA) and local authority level.
This publication is released in support of bringing greater transparency to VOA functions. The data are also used to inform government policy and conduct analyses to support the operations of the VOA.
Figure 1.1: The number of properties by Council Tax band in England, 31 March 2022
Figure notes: Counts are rounded to the nearest hundred thousand. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.
Figure 1.2: The number of properties by Council Tax band in Wales, 31 March 2022
Figure notes: Counts are rounded to the nearest ten. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.
Note that Council Tax policy is devolved in Wales and the banding systems are different in England and Wales. For example, band I is only used in Wales and the valuation bands and valuation dates are different. For details please see the background information.
Figures 1.1 and 1.2 show the number of properties by Council Tax band in England and Wales at 31 March 2022:
Figure 2: The number of properties by region in England and Wales, 31 March 2022
Figure notes: Counts are rounded to the nearest hundred thousand. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.
Figure 2 shows the number of properties in each region of England and in Wales at 31 March 2022:
Figure 3: Properties by Council Tax band and region in England and Wales, 31 March 2022
Figure note: Note that Council Tax policy is devolved in Wales and the banding systems are different in England and Wales. For example, band I is only used in Wales and the valuation bands and valuation dates are different. For details please see the background information.
Figure 3 shows the percentage of properties by Council Tax band in each region of England and in Wales at 31 March 2022:
Figure 4.1: The number of properties by Council Tax band in England, 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2022
Figure note: Counts are rounded to the nearest hundred thousand.
Figure 4.1 shows the change over time in the number of properties in each Council Tax band in England since 1 April 1993. Between 1 April 1993 and 31 March 2022, the total number of properties in England increased from 20.1 million to 25.1 million.
Table 1: The number of properties by Council Tax band in England, 31 March 2021 and 31 March 2022
Table notes: Counts are rounded to the nearest ten. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
Table 1 shows the change in the number of properties in each band in England between 31 March 2021 and 31 March 2022:
Figure 4.2: The number of properties by Council Tax band in Wales, 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2022
Figure notes: Counts are rounded to the nearest ten thousand. The number of properties in each band before and after 1 April 2005 should not be compared because the banding system in Wales was changed on this date. Band I was introduced on 1 April 2005. For details please see the background information.
Figure 4.2 shows the change over time in the number of properties in each Council Tax band in Wales from the first financial year of the list. Between 1 April 1993 and 31 March 2022, the total number of properties in Wales increased from 1.21 million to 1.46 million.
Table 2: The number of properties by Council Tax band in Wales, 31 March 2021 and 31 March 2022
Table notes: Counts are rounded to the nearest ten. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
Table 2 shows the change in the number of properties in each band in Wales between 31 March 2021 and 31 March 2022:
Figure 5: The number of properties by property type in England and Wales, 31 March 2022
Figure notes: Counts are rounded to the nearest ten thousand. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.
Figure 5 shows the number of properties by property type in England and Wales at 31 March 2022:
Figure 6.1: Bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses by region and property type in England and Wales, 31 March 2022
Figure 6.2: Annexes, caravans/house boats/mobile homes and properties with an unknown property type by region in England and Wales, 31 March 2022
Figures 6.1 and 6.2 show the percentage of properties by property type and region in England and Wales at 31 March 2022:
Figure 7: Properties by property type and Council Tax band in England and Wales, 31 March 2022
Figure note: Note that Council Tax policy is devolved in Wales and the banding systems are different in England and Wales. For example, band I is only used in Wales and the valuation bands and valuation dates are different. For details please see the background information.
Figure 7 shows the percentage of properties by property type and Council Tax band in England and Wales at 31 March 2022:
In this release, the number of bedrooms in a property is only shown for some property types. These property types total 26.2 million and include:
All information about the number of bedrooms in a property excludes annexes, caravans, house boats and mobile homes, and properties with an unknown property type. Together these total 0.4 million properties.
Figure 8: The number of bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses by number of bedrooms in England and Wales, 31 March 2022
Figure note: Counts are rounded to the nearest hundred thousand.
Figure 8 shows the number of bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses in England and Wales by number of bedrooms at 31 March 2022. Of the 26.2 million bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses:
Figure 9: Bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses by property type and number of bedrooms in England and Wales, 31 March 2022
Figure 9 shows the percentage of bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses by property type and number of bedrooms in England and Wales at 31 March 2022:
Figure 10: The number of bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses by number of bedrooms and Council Tax band in England and Wales, 31 March 2022
Figure note: Note that Council Tax policy is devolved in Wales and the banding systems are different in England and Wales. For example, band I is only used in Wales and the valuation bands and valuation dates are different. For details please see the background information.
Figure 10 shows the percentage of bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses by number of bedrooms and Council Tax band in England and Wales at 31 March 2022:
Figure 11: Bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses by region and number of bedrooms in England and Wales, 31 March 2022
Figure 11 shows the percentage of bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses by number of bedrooms and region in England and Wales at 31 March 2022:
Figure 12: The number of properties by property type in England and Wales, 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2022
Figure note: The total number of properties is rounded to the nearest hundred thousand.
Figure 12 shows the number of properties of each property type from 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2022. At the introduction of the 1993 Council Tax Valuation List, most records were held in paper format. The VOA has been continually working to update and improve the accuracy of the Council Tax Valuation Lists and, by 31 March 2004, were able to record the property type of most of these properties electronically in the VOA’s administrative database. There were 7.4 million properties with an unknown property type at 1 April 1993. This number has been consistently decreasing each year, and at 31 March 2022 this number had reduced to 0.2 million properties.
Table 3: The difference in the number of properties by property type in England and Wales, 31 March 2021 to 31 March 2022
Table notes: Property counts are rounded to the nearest ten thousand. Count differences are rounded to the nearest ten. Totals may not sum due to rounding. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.
Table 3 shows the change in the number of properties by property type between 31 March 2021 and 31 March 2022:
Only properties which were recorded in the VOA database as a bungalow, flat, maisonette, terraced house, semi-detached house or detached house are included in these statistics.
Figure 13: The number of bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses by number of bedrooms in England and Wales, 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2022
Figure note: Counts are rounded to the nearest hundred thousand.
Between 1993 and 2003, many properties had an unknown property type (figure 12). As such, they are excluded from the statistics in figure 13, because this figure only includes information from properties which were recorded at the end of each financial year as either a bungalow, a flat/maisonette or a house. At the introduction of the 1993 Council Tax Valuation List, most records were held in paper format. The VOA has been continually working to update and improve the accuracy of the Council Tax Valuation Lists and, by 31 March 2004, were able to record the property type of most of these properties electronically in the VOA’s administrative database. This is reflected in the year-on-year increases in the total number of bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses.
Figure 13 shows the number of bedrooms in bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses in England and Wales from 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2022:
Table 4: The number of bedrooms in bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses in England and Wales, 31 March 2021 and 31 March 2022
Table notes: Property counts are rounded to the nearest ten thousand. Count differences are rounded to the nearest ten. Totals may not sum due to rounding. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.
Table 4 shows the change in the number of bedrooms in bungalows, flats/maisonettes and houses between 31 March 2021 and 31 March 2022:
For properties built prior to 2009, the VOA records the ‘build period’ of properties rather than the exact year built. The build periods are not equal in terms of the number of years they cover. Therefore, also shown is the stock of properties in terms of ‘average properties per year of build period’; this allows the figures for different build periods to be compared. Note that this has been done for comparison purposes only and it is not a representation of the number of properties built in a year; therefore, the figures in table 5 should not be compared to the housing supply statistics that are published by DLUHC. The ‘average properties per year of build period’ figure is shown as ‘not applicable’ for properties with a build period of pre-1900, properties where the build period is unknown, and properties with a build period of 2022.
The number of properties in the list with a build period prior to the 2021 to 2022 financial year has increased for some build periods. This can happen for a number of reasons. For example:
In addition, the VOA is continually working to improve the accuracy of the Council Tax Valuation Lists, therefore, a property which was previously recorded as having an unknown build period may have had this information added between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022.
The number of properties in the list with a build period prior to the 2021 to 2022 financial year has decreased for some build periods. This may happen for a number of reasons. For example:
Table 5: The number of properties by build period in England and Wales, 31 March 2022
Table notes: Total stock is rounded to the nearest ten thousand. Average properties per year of build period is rounded to the nearest ten and is calculated by dividing the total stock in the build period by the number of years in the build period. ‘–’ is used to denote ‘not applicable’.
Note 1: These statistics only include properties in the Council Tax Valuation Lists as at 31 March 2022.
Table 5 shows the number of properties by build period in England and Wales at 31 March 2022:
The following charts show the number of properties by build period and Council Tax band in England and Wales for properties that were on the Council Tax Valuation Lists as at 31 March 2022.
Figure 14: Properties by build period and Council Tax band in England and Wales, 31 March 2022
Figure note: Note that Council Tax policy is devolved in Wales and the banding systems are different in England and Wales. For example, band I is only used in Wales and the valuation bands and valuation dates are different. For details please see the background information.
Note 1: These statistics only include properties in the Council Tax Valuation Lists as at 31 March 2022.
Figure 14 shows the percentage of properties by build period and Council Tax band in England and Wales at 31 March 2022:
Figure 15: The number of properties by build period in England and Wales, 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2022
Note 1: These statistics only include properties in the Council Tax Valuation Lists as at 31 March 2022.
Figure 15 shows the number of properties by build period from 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2022. Between 1993 and 2003, many properties had an unknown property type (figure 12). At the introduction of the 1993 Council Tax Valuation List, most records were held in paper format. The VOA has been continually working to update and improve the accuracy of the Council Tax Valuation Lists and, by 31 March 2004, were able to record the property type of most of these properties electronically in the VOA’s administrative database. The reducing number of properties with an unknown property type in each year closely matches the reducing number of properties with an unknown build period:
Table 6: The number of properties by build period in England and Wales, 31 March 2021 and 31 March 2022
Table notes: Property counts are rounded to the nearest ten thousand. Count differences are rounded to the nearest ten. Totals may not sum due to rounding. Percentages are rounded to two decimal places. ‘–’ is used to denote ‘not applicable’.
Note 1: The statistics as at 31 March 2021 will only include properties with a Council Tax band that were built from 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2021. The statistics as at 31 March 2022 will only include properties with a Council Tax band that were built from 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2022. Therefore, it is not appropriate to calculate the percentage change for this build period.
Table 6 shows the change in the number of properties in each build period between 31 March 2021 and 31 March 2022:
Figure 16: The number of properties inserted into and deleted from the Council Tax Valuation Lists in England and Wales, 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2022
Source: Tables CTSOP5.0 and CTSOP6.0
Figure note: Net change is calculated as the difference between the total number of properties inserted into the lists and the total number of properties deleted from the lists in a financial year.
Figure 16 shows the number of properties inserted to and deleted from the Council Tax Valuation Lists from 1993-94 to 2021-22. The number of properties inserted and deleted increased in 1994 to 1995. This occurred as a result of boundary changes; when changes to the boundaries of local authorities result in a large number of properties moving from one billing authority to another, the VOA processes these changes by removing these properties from the Council Tax Valuation Lists. The properties are then reinserted into the list with the property’s new billing authority. For further information on these changes, please see the ONS web page on local government restructuring.
Generally, the number of properties deleted has tended to decrease over the years:
The pattern of properties inserted does not follow the same trend as the pattern of properties deleted:
Figure 17: The number of properties inserted into the Council Tax Valuation Lists in England and Wales, 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022
Figure notes: Counts are rounded to the nearest ten. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place. ‘New property’ means a new entry not previously in the Council Tax list; this may not necessarily indicate new build properties, but those that are inserted as a result of a report with this category in the Valuation Office Agency’s administrative database. In most cases the report type is provided by the billing authority.
Figure 17 shows the reasons that properties were inserted into the Council Tax Valuation Lists between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022. The main reason that properties were inserted into the lists was new properties being added to the list, which made up 89.5% of all insertions.
Figure 18: The number of properties inserted into the Council Tax Valuation Lists in England and Wales, 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2022
Figure notes: Counts are rounded to the nearest thousand. ‘New property’ means a new entry not previously in the Council Tax list; this may not necessarily indicate new build properties, but those that are inserted as a result of a report with this category in the Valuation Office Agency’s administrative database. In most cases the report type is provided by the billing authority.
Figure 18 shows a time series of the number of properties inserted into the Council Tax Valuation Lists in England and Wales. To make the chart clearer, some of the categories from figure 17 have been grouped together.
In every financial year, the main reason that properties were inserted was new properties being added to the list. In most years, the second most frequent reason was properties being reconstituted; that is, a property being split up into two or more properties, properties being merged into a single property, or another kind of reconstitution. However, in 1996 to 1997, the second most frequent reason was properties inserted as a result of boundary changes (see section Net change).
Figure 19: The number of properties deleted from the Council Tax Valuation Lists in England and Wales, 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022
Figure notes: Counts are rounded to the nearest ten. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.
Figure 19 shows the reasons that properties were deleted from the Council Tax Valuation Lists between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022. The main reasons for properties to be deleted from the lists were properties moving from domestic to commercial use, which made up 32.1% of all deletions, and properties being demolished (27.2% of deletions).
Figure 20: The number of properties deleted from the Council Tax Valuation Lists in England and Wales, 1 April 1993 to 31 March 2022
Figure note: Counts are rounded to the nearest thousand.
Figure 20 shows a time series of the number of properties deleted from the Council Tax Valuation Lists in England and Wales. To make the chart clearer, some of the categories from figure 19 have been grouped together.
In most financial years, the main reasons that properties were deleted were properties being demolished or deemed uninhabitable, properties being reconstituted and properties moving from domestic to commercial use. From 1994-95 to 1997-98, a large number of properties were deleted as a result of boundary changes (see section Net change).
Further information about the data and methodology presented in this commentary can be found in the Background Information.
As part of our improvement programme, if you’re interested in participating in user research about this statistical release, please contact us at statistics@voa.gov.uk.
GOV.UK has more information on:
Timings of future releases are regularly placed on the VOA research and statistics calendar.
For further information on the geographical information used in this release please refer to the ONS Administrative Geography Guidance.
Housing statistics from other government departments
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Homes England (England)
Department for Communities (Northern Ireland)
Housing and Social Justice Directorate (Scotland)
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