The full band A to H table for High Wycombe town in 2026/27, up 5.06% on last year. Your parish changes the bill: Princes Risborough pays £117.76 more.
A band D household in High Wycombe town pays £2,439.67 in council tax in 2026/27, up £117.42 or 5.06% on last year. Buckinghamshire Council does not print that number on any web page. It is in Schedule 4 of its council tax bands and charges document, an eight-page PDF listing all 172 parish areas in the county.
The full table for High Wycombe town is below.
The band A to H table for High Wycombe, 2026/27
| Band | 2026/27 charge | 2025/26 charge | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,626.44 | £1,548.16 | +£78.28 |
| B | £1,897.52 | £1,806.19 | +£91.33 |
| C | £2,168.60 | £2,064.22 | +£104.38 |
| D | £2,439.67 | £2,322.25 | +£117.42 |
| E | £2,981.82 | £2,838.31 | +£143.51 |
| F | £3,523.97 | £3,354.35 | +£169.62 |
| G | £4,066.11 | £3,870.41 | +£195.70 |
| H | £4,879.34 | £4,644.50 | +£234.84 |
Bands are set by the Valuation Office Agency, not the council, and they are still based on what a property would have sold for on 1 April 1991. You can look up your own band on GOV.UK for free.
Where the money goes
A band D bill in High Wycombe town is made up of five separate charges. The council’s 2026/27 council tax resolution breaks them out:
| Charge | Band D | Change on 2025/26 |
|---|---|---|
| Buckinghamshire Council, core services | £1,699.92 | |
| Buckinghamshire Council, adult social care precept | £330.69 | |
| Buckinghamshire Council total | £2,030.61 | +4.99% |
| Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner | £298.28 | +5.30% |
| Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority | £89.46 | +5.92% |
| High Wycombe special expenses | £18.89 | |
| High Wycombe Charter Trustees | £2.43 | |
| Total | £2,439.67 | +5.06% |
The council’s own increase is 4.99%, made up of 2.99% for general services and 2% for adult social care. That is deliberately a penny under the 5% referendum limit the government sets, and the resolution says so in as many words.
The two precepts that rose fastest are not the council’s. The fire authority added 5.92% and the police 5.30%, both above the council’s own increase, though from much smaller bases.
The last two lines are the local ones. High Wycombe has no town or parish council. It has Charter Trustees, the body that keeps the office of Mayor of High Wycombe going, and they cost £2.43 a year at band D. The larger figure, £18.89, is “special expenses”: services the council provides directly in the unparished town that a parish council would otherwise pay for elsewhere.
Your parish changes the bill
The council element is identical across Buckinghamshire. What varies is the parish precept on top, and in this district it varies by nearly £120 at band D.
| Parish or town | Band D 2026/27 | Parish precept, band D |
|---|---|---|
| Princes Risborough | £2,557.43 | £139.08 |
| West Wycombe | £2,517.62 | £99.27 |
| Chepping Wycombe | £2,494.18 | £75.83 |
| Hazlemere | £2,490.61 | £72.26 |
| Little Marlow | £2,488.41 | £70.06 |
| Marlow Town | £2,484.49 | £66.14 |
| Downley | £2,473.92 | £55.57 |
| Marlow Bottom | £2,449.95 | £31.60 |
| Great Marlow | £2,441.91 | £23.56 |
| High Wycombe Town | £2,439.67 | £21.32 |
| Hedsor and other nil-precept parishes | £2,418.35 | none |
Princes Risborough pays £117.76 more at band D than High Wycombe town, for the same county services, because its town council precepts £139.08 against High Wycombe’s £21.32. Marlow Town charges £66.14. Both are in Schedule 3 of the council’s parish precepts document.
Twenty-four Buckinghamshire parishes issue no precept at all, including Hedsor in this district. Those households pay £2,418.35 at band D, the floor for the whole county.
Marlow Town rose fastest of the local towns this year, up 5.41% at band D, against 4.93% in Princes Risborough and 5.06% in High Wycombe.
Discounts, and what the council has taken away
The standard reductions still apply:
- Single person discount: 25%, if you are the only adult in the property
- Disabled band reduction: your band drops by one, or the bill falls 17% if you are already in band A
- Students, apprentices and under-18s: full exemption or disregard, depending on circumstances
- Care leavers under 21: exempt
Several discounts have been withdrawn, and they are the ones most likely to surprise someone buying or inheriting a property here.
- The 100% one month discount on empty, unfurnished homes was removed on 1 April 2024
- The 50% discount for homes undergoing structural work went at the same time
- The 10% second home discount went on 1 April 2023
The empty homes premium is now steep, and it starts a year earlier than it used to. From 1 April 2025 the trigger moved from two years to one:
| Empty for | You pay |
|---|---|
| 1 to 5 years | 200% of the normal bill |
| 5 to 10 years | 300% |
| More than 10 years | 400% |
At band D in High Wycombe town, a home empty for six years is billed £7,319.01. The charge follows the property, not the owner, so buying an already-empty house inherits the clock. Exceptions exist for probate, active marketing and major repairs, each capped at 12 months, and the council’s long-term empty properties page sets out the evidence needed.
Buckinghamshire has not applied the second homes premium. Its published discounts and premiums policy, which covers 2025/26 and is the current version on the council’s website, records the second homes premium as “not to be charged”. Many English councils doubled second home bills from April 2025. A furnished second home in Marlow or Bourne End is billed at the normal rate, with no discount and no premium. There is a 50% discount for job-related second homes.
Council Tax Reduction changed in April
The support scheme for working age people was replaced on 1 April 2026 with an income banded scheme. Instead of a calculation that moves every time your income does, you land in one of five bands and get 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% or nothing off the bill. The council says the point is to make the amount stable month to month, and that the lowest incomes now get a full 100% discount.
Two conditions to check before applying:
- Working age claims need capital under £6,000
- Pension age claims need capital under £16,000, or Pension Guarantee Credit
Pension age households are unaffected and stay on the national prescribed scheme, which also goes up to 100%. Evidence has to be with the council within 21 days of submitting the form or the claim is refused outright and you start again. Apply on the council’s Council Tax Reduction page.
Challenging your band
There are two routes, and they are not the same thing.
- A proposal is a formal challenge. The VOA must review your band. You can generally only make one if you have been paying council tax on the property for less than six months.
- A band review is informal, open to anyone, and the VOA will only look at it if you bring strong evidence.
Evidence means sale prices of similar nearby properties around 1 April 1991, or the bands of comparable neighbouring homes. Keep paying while an appeal is open: the council states that liability is not suspended. If the property is derelict, being rebuilt or structurally altered, the VOA may delete the band entirely, though the council warns this can produce a higher band once the work is finished.
Also on Wycombe Today: house prices, bin collection days, parking in High Wycombe and roadworks and travel.
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