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Full list of the UK’s 33 ‘high tax’ towns and cities – check your area.uk

admin May 12, 2025

One council area is a whopping £27,280 in deficit – and it’s leaving British taxpayers shortchanged.

Brits living in 33 council areas are being hit the hardest

Brits living in 33 council areas are being hit the hardest (Image: Getty)

A whopping 33 council areas in England pay more direct taxes than they take out though localised services – and they are all located in one part of the country. Put simply, Brits living in these high tax areas in the south of England are paying more into the system than they are getting back.

The figures – which cover both income tax and council tax – highlight that one in four households are in the top two council tax bands, with many households paying £4,458 a year. According to the Telegraph, Kensing ton and Chelsea pay the most average tax per head in the country – with the average tax per head being £42.5k compared to £15.2k in average spend per head. This means each taxpayer is £27,280 in deficit.

Kensington and Chelsea pay the most council tax in the country

Kensington and Chelsea pay the most council tax in the country (Image: Getty)

Meanwhile locals in Elmbridge, a thriving picturesque borough in close proximity to London, the average tax per head is £21,411, £15,857 annually in income tax and £1,023 each in council tax.

The Telegraph estimates here the average resident is benefitting from about £10,900 in spending on core localised services, which includes bin collection, road maintenance to welfare and policing and nationally funded healthcare. This equals a deficit in overall spending on public services relative to tax of more than 50%, or £10,476, for a typical resident.

Julia McCances – who lives in Elmbridge – told the Telegraph that despite paying the fifth-highest income tax in the country, small matters have still not been taken care of. She said: “I’ve written so many times to try and get the footpaths done.

“Especially that one up there – that is unbelievable, somebody is going to have a really bad tumble. It’s uneven.”

A typical resident in Elmbridge is £10,476 in deficit

A typical resident in Elmbridge is £10,476 in deficit (Image: Getty)

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The income tax raid on London and the South-East has topped more than £100 billion a year for the first time, according to HMRC figures.

Those living in the capital paid £59.3 billion to the Treasury in a single year and South-East residents £41.4 billion, just over half the total for the whole of England of £198 billion, according to the London Evening Standard.

The bill is being driven up by the Rachel Reeve’s tax freeze on the thresholds for paying different rates of income tax.