Band D in Macclesfield town is £2,442.92 for 2026-27, up 5.21%. The full A to H table, every local parish precept, and the premium that doubles a second home.
A band D household inside Macclesfield Town Council’s area pays £2,442.92 in 2026-27. That is 5.21% more than last year’s £2,321.86, and it is made up of four separate charges set by four separate bodies (Cheshire East council tax charges 2026-27, PDF).
The bill differs street by street across this district, because the parish or town precept is the part that changes. Wilmslow’s band D is £2,428.53. Knutsford’s is £2,520.41. Three places in the borough pay no parish precept at all.
The full A to H table
These are the charges everyone in Cheshire East pays, before the parish or town council part is added (about council tax):
| Band | Cheshire East | Fire | Police | Total before parish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,317.30 | £66.73 | £196.96 | £1,580.99 |
| B | £1,536.85 | £77.85 | £229.79 | £1,844.49 |
| C | £1,756.40 | £88.97 | £262.61 | £2,107.98 |
| D | £1,975.95 | £100.09 | £295.44 | £2,371.48 |
| E | £2,415.05 | £122.33 | £361.09 | £2,898.47 |
| F | £2,854.15 | £144.57 | £426.75 | £3,425.47 |
| G | £3,293.25 | £166.82 | £492.40 | £3,952.47 |
| H | £3,951.90 | £200.18 | £590.88 | £4,742.96 |
Add the Macclesfield Town Council precept and the eight bands become £1,628.62, £1,900.05, £2,171.48, £2,442.92, £2,985.79, £3,528.66, £4,071.54 and £4,885.84.
One oddity in the council’s own figures is worth flagging. Its bill increase page gives the Cheshire East band D charge as £1,975.99, while its charges table and the published PDF both say £1,975.95. The 4p difference is a rounding slip on that one page. The PDF is the document the bills are built from.
Where you live changes the bill
The parish or town precept is the only part that varies, and across this district it varies by more than £100 at band D. These are the 2026-27 band D totals for the places The Macclesfield Times covers, taken from the council’s alphabetical list of charges:
| Parish or town | Band D total | Change on 2025-26 |
|---|---|---|
| Knutsford | £2,520.41 | +5.59% |
| Bollington | £2,516.74 | +5.27% |
| Poynton with Worth | £2,480.67 | +5.20% |
| Disley | £2,477.59 | +5.30% |
| Nether Alderley | £2,472.93 | +4.87% |
| Handforth | £2,457.18 | +5.93% |
| Adlington | £2,448.73 | +7.15% |
| Macclesfield town | £2,442.92 | +5.21% |
| Prestbury | £2,438.06 | +5.06% |
| Chelford | £2,436.89 | +5.09% |
| Wilmslow | £2,428.53 | +5.13% |
| Alderley Edge | £2,427.19 | +4.92% |
| Mobberley | £2,407.50 | +5.25% |
| Styal | £2,404.86 | +5.13% |
| Rainow | £2,397.08 | +5.21% |
| Higher Hurdsfield | £2,394.08 | +5.15% |
| Sutton | £2,393.52 | +5.15% |
Strip out the district, police and fire charges and the parish precepts alone tell a sharper story:
- Handforth Town Council raised its band D precept from £65.58 to £85.70, an increase of 30.7%.
- Adlington Parish Council raised its from £31.30 to £77.25, an increase of 146.8%, the steepest rise in this part of the borough.
- Knutsford Town Council went from £132.92 to £148.93, up 12%, and now charges the highest parish precept of any town in the district apart from Nantwich.
- Alderley Edge Parish Council cut its precept, from £59.38 to £55.71, down 6.2%.
- Macclesfield Town Council went from £67.79 to £71.44, up 5.4%.
Three places pay nothing at all on top of the base £2,371.48: Macclesfield Forest and Wildboarclough, Wincle and Little Warford. All three are parish meetings or parishes that set no precept.
Parish precepts are not capped by the referendum limit that applies to the district council, which is how a rise of 146.8% is lawful.
What went up, and by how much
The 2026-27 increases were set separately by four bodies. At band D:
- Cheshire East Council: 4.99%, from £1,882.04 to £1,975.95. Of that 4.99%, 2% is ringfenced for adult social care.
- Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner: £18.50 more, from £276.94 to £295.44, a rise of 6.7%.
- Cheshire Fire Authority: £5.00 more, from £95.09 to £100.09, a rise of 5.3%.
- Your parish or town council, which is the figure in the table above.
Bills also carry the Environment Agency flood protection levy, set by central government.
Checking and challenging your band
Cheshire East does not set bands and cannot change them. Bands are assigned by the Valuation Office, based on what the property would have sold for on 1 April 1991. There has never been a revaluation in England (council tax bands):
| 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 | £320,001 and over |
You can look up your band free at GOV.UK and challenge it through the Valuation Office. The rule that catches people out: you must keep paying the existing bill while a challenge is outstanding.
A change is coming for the top of this market. From April 2028 the government’s High Value Council Tax Surcharge will apply to homes worth £2m or more, charged on the owner rather than the occupier and collected by the council on the government’s behalf. The rates announced run from £2,500 a year for homes valued at £2m to £2.5m up to £7,500 above £5m, based on a fresh Valuation Office exercise (Cheshire East council tax news). On Alderley Edge and Prestbury prices, that is not an abstract threshold.
Discounts and support
The main reductions (council tax reductions for occupied properties):
- Single person discount: 25% if you are the only adult living there. It does not apply to an empty property.
- All-student households: 100%, so nothing to pay. Where only some occupants are students, the disregard rules give 25% or 50%.
- Severe mental impairment: the person is disregarded, which can mean a 25%, 50% or 100% reduction. It needs a medical declaration signed by a doctor as well as the application form.
- Carers, apprentices, school leavers, care home residents and people in detention are also disregarded.
- Annexe discount: 50% where an annexe houses a relative or is used as part of the main home.
Council tax support is the means-tested scheme. You can claim whether or not you work, if you have less than £6,000 in savings at working age or £16,000 at pension credit age. The council says it normally decides within 10 working days of having everything it needs (council tax support).
Backdating is possible: 12 months as standard, or up to six years if you can evidence the claim.
One warning the council prints on its own pages and nobody repeats: its change of circumstances backlog is currently around four months. If you have told it about a move or a discount and heard nothing, that is why. Keep paying the existing bill in the meantime.
Empty homes and second homes cost double, or more
Cheshire East applies both premiums, and the second homes one has been running since 1 April 2025 (council tax for empty properties and second homes).
For a property left empty and substantially unfurnished:
| Time empty | You pay |
|---|---|
| 0 to 1 year | 100% |
| 1 to 5 years | 200% |
| 5 to 10 years | 300% |
| 10 years or more | 400% |
For a furnished property that is nobody’s main home, the premium is 100% from day one, so the bill is 200%. That catches holiday lets and short-term lets that stay in the council tax list rather than moving to business rates.
The line that decides which category you fall into is a Cheshire East definition you will not find in the legislation. A property counts as substantially unfurnished if the number of items of removable furniture, excluding white goods, is fewer than the number of rooms, not counting the bathroom. More furniture than rooms and it is furnished, and the second home premium applies instead.
Nine national exceptions to the premiums came into force on 1 April 2025, some time-limited and some permanent. The council publishes them as a separate PDF from the same page.
Also on The Macclesfield Times
- Macclesfield house prices: what homes here actually sell for
- Macclesfield bin collection days: the three-weekly black bin switch and the garden waste charge
- Parking in Macclesfield: tariffs, permits and where parking is still free
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