Council tax is about to get a lot more painful for some London homeowners but not necessarily in the way you’d expect.
Rather than a blanket hike for everyone, one borough is planning to squeeze two very different groups at once: people with second homes, and some of its poorest residents who currently pay nothing at all.
Most Londoners know the drill by now. Each spring, council tax bills land with a dull thud on the doormat (or in the inbox), announcing yet another rise to help pay for everything from bin collections and adult social care, to children’s services and street lighting.
Usually, increases hover somewhere around the government’s standard cap, and everyone grumbles and gets on with it. But this time, things are different: in one part of London, certain council tax bills are set to double in a single year, while households who’ve never had to pay before could find themselves dragged into the system.
Council tax is set to double in one London borough
At this point you might be picturing a struggling, outer‑London authority on the brink of bankruptcy. In fact, the borough in question is one of the richest in the country, where multimillion‑pound townhouses, luxury new‑builds and pieds‑à‑terre are thick on the ground.
It is the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which is now considering a 100% council tax premium on second homes.
Second home owners to pay double the standard council tax rate
Kensington and Chelsea is looking at slapping a 100 percent premium on properties that are not someone’s main residence, meaning affected owners would pay double the standard council tax rate.
This would drag the borough into line with places like Wandsworth, Westminster and Hackney, which already charge far higher rates on second homes and long‑term empties. The idea is twofold: raise extra income for a cash‑strapped council, and push owners to actually use or rent out homes that might otherwise sit dark for most of the year.
Under national rules brought in by the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, councils can now impose a premium of up to 100 percent on second homes, effectively doubling the bill.
If K&C presses ahead, a second home that currently pays the normal Band D charge would see its annual council tax payment jump to twice that amount from the 2026-27 tax year.
Given the borough’s high property values and concentration of second residences, that could translate into eye‑watering extra costs for owners of luxury pads that are only occupied for part of the year.
Kensington and Chelsea could be in debt of £139 million by 2030
For all its wealth, Kensington and Chelsea is staring at a projected budget black hole of around £139 million by 2030, driven largely by expected cuts in central government funding.
Ministers have signalled that money will be shifted away from authorities with historically low council tax and strong tax bases, and towards more deprived areas, leaving boroughs like K&C to plug the gap themselves. In that context, doubling council tax on second homes begins to look less like a political choice and more like a financial necessity.
Draft budget papers for the borough talk about “reluctantly” considering a council tax premium on second homes, alongside other “difficult options” such as cutting back support schemes.
Kensington and Chelsea is one of several London councils that have been given special permission to increase their overall council tax rates by more than the standard 5 percent cap over the next couple of years, precisely because they’ve kept bills low for so long.
Put together, those changes mean residents are likely to see both general increases and targeted premiums piled onto their annual bill.
The hit to low‑income households
The most controversial element of K&C’s plans may not be the squeeze on second home owners at all, but the proposal to reduce council tax support for some of its poorest residents.
Around 8,000 low‑income working‑age people and pensioners in the borough currently receive up to 100 percent support, meaning they pay no council tax. Under the new proposals, that support would be cut by 10 percent, forcing many of those households to start paying something for the first time.
Anti‑poverty campaigners argue that, in the middle of a cost‑of‑living crisis, asking people on the lowest incomes to contribute more is a step too far, especially in an area where extreme wealth is so visible.
The council, however, insists it is running out of alternatives, warning that without changes to tax and support, it will have to make even deeper cuts to frontline services. Either way, the optics are stark: a flagship “double council tax” headline that affects both wealthy second‑home owners and residents already on the edge.
When do these changes take place?
At the moment, the premium on second homes and the changes to council tax support in Kensington and Chelsea are still proposals being taken through the borough’s budget process.
Councillors will sign off the final package for the 2026-27 financial year in the coming months, deciding exactly which measures go ahead and from when. If approved, the new charges would kick in from April 2026, in time for the next council tax cycle.
Kensington and Chelsea is unlikely to be the last London authority to try this kind of move. With councils across the capital warning of looming deficits, and new powers in place to crank up bills on second homes and empties, London’s patchwork of council tax rates is only going to get more complicated – and, for many, more expensive.