UK Disposable Income by City 2026/27: After Tax, Rent and Council Tax
Original data report ranking 40 UK cities by disposable income remaining after Income Tax, National Insurance, typical rent and Council Tax Band D on local median full-time pay for 2026/27.
The headline finding
Among 40 UK cities surveyed, Aberdeen leaves the local median full-time worker with the highest disposable income after Income Tax, NI, rent and Council Tax: £23,598/year. The lowest disposable city is Brighton and Hove at £10,906/year - a gap of £12,692.
The 40-city average disposable income (after tax and housing essentials) is £17,064/year, or approximately £1,422/month for non-housing spending.
Disposable income ranking: 40 UK cities
Each city's local median full-time gross pay is taxed at 2026/27 rates (England/Wales/NI rates where applicable, Scottish bands for Scottish cities). Net take-home minus typical 2-bed monthly rent (×12) minus Council Tax Band D 2026/27 = disposable income. Belfast has no Council Tax - the figure used is a typical domestic Rates bill (£150,000 capital-value home at 2026/27 poundages, Finance NI).
| City | Gross | Net | Rent (annual) | Council Tax | Disposable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aberdeen | £43,368 | £34,646 | £9,300 | £1,748 | £23,598 |
| Derby | £41,340 | £33,284 | £9,300 | £2,306 | £21,678 |
| Coventry | £42,692 | £34,258 | £10,800 | £2,517 | £20,941 |
| Reading | £49,608 | £39,237 | £16,800 | £2,613 | £19,824 |
| Hull | £36,036 | £29,466 | £7,500 | £2,295 | £19,671 |
| Stoke-on-Trent | £36,244 | £29,615 | £7,800 | £2,183 | £19,632 |
| Dundee | £36,920 | £30,068 | £9,000 | £1,730 | £19,338 |
| Belfast | £39,884 | £32,236 | £11,400 | £1,508 | £19,328 |
| Newport | £38,480 | £31,225 | £10,200 | £2,088 | £18,937 |
| Bradford | £35,776 | £29,278 | £8,100 | £2,361 | £18,817 |
| Swansea | £36,920 | £30,102 | £9,300 | £2,238 | £18,564 |
| Liverpool | £38,324 | £31,113 | £9,900 | £2,674 | £18,539 |
| Middlesbrough | £35,152 | £28,829 | £7,800 | £2,549 | £18,480 |
| Glasgow | £41,444 | £33,280 | £13,200 | £1,706 | £18,374 |
| Sheffield | £37,544 | £30,551 | £9,900 | £2,510 | £18,141 |
| Wolverhampton | £37,284 | £30,364 | £9,900 | £2,539 | £17,925 |
| Birmingham | £39,572 | £32,011 | £12,000 | £2,363 | £17,648 |
| Sunderland | £33,384 | £27,556 | £7,800 | £2,197 | £17,559 |
| Leeds | £38,532 | £31,263 | £11,700 | £2,284 | £17,279 |
| Plymouth | £37,024 | £30,177 | £10,500 | £2,442 | £17,235 |
| Southampton | £40,664 | £32,798 | £13,200 | £2,381 | £17,217 |
| Edinburgh | £43,316 | £34,609 | £15,900 | £1,626 | £17,083 |
| York | £39,832 | £32,199 | £12,900 | £2,287 | £17,012 |
| Northampton | £37,908 | £30,813 | £11,400 | £2,487 | £16,926 |
| Milton Keynes | £41,548 | £33,434 | £14,400 | £2,372 | £16,662 |
| Portsmouth | £39,728 | £32,124 | £13,500 | £2,292 | £16,332 |
| Manchester | £41,340 | £33,284 | £14,700 | £2,312 | £16,272 |
| Luton | £39,416 | £31,899 | £13,200 | £2,440 | £16,259 |
| Cardiff | £38,272 | £31,075 | £12,900 | £2,013 | £16,162 |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | £37,232 | £30,327 | £12,000 | £2,542 | £15,785 |
| Leicester | £35,360 | £28,979 | £10,800 | £2,529 | £15,650 |
| Norwich | £36,296 | £29,653 | £11,700 | £2,503 | £15,450 |
| Nottingham | £34,996 | £28,717 | £10,800 | £2,755 | £15,162 |
| Cambridge | £45,552 | £36,317 | £19,500 | £2,467 | £14,350 |
| Bournemouth | £37,804 | £30,738 | £14,100 | £2,436 | £14,202 |
| Bristol | £43,576 | £34,894 | £18,600 | £2,714 | £13,580 |
| Exeter | £35,568 | £29,129 | £13,500 | £2,495 | £13,134 |
| Oxford | £43,004 | £34,482 | £19,800 | £2,678 | £12,004 |
| London | £49,816 | £39,387 | £26,400 | £2,068 | £10,919 |
| Brighton and Hove | £39,260 | £31,787 | £18,300 | £2,581 | £10,906 |
Housing burden ranking: where rent + council tax eats the largest share
Combined annual rent + Council Tax Band D as a percentage of net take-home pay. This is the share of post-tax pay that goes to roof-over-head essentials before any food, transport or saving.
| City | Housing as % of net | Monthly housing cost | After-housing monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 72.3% | £2,372 | £910 |
| Brighton and Hove | 65.7% | £1,740 | £909 |
| Oxford | 65.2% | £1,873 | £1,000 |
| Bristol | 61.1% | £1,776 | £1,132 |
| Cambridge | 60.5% | £1,831 | £1,196 |
| Exeter | 54.9% | £1,333 | £1,094 |
| Bournemouth | 53.8% | £1,378 | £1,184 |
| Manchester | 51.1% | £1,418 | £1,356 |
| Edinburgh | 50.6% | £1,461 | £1,424 |
| Milton Keynes | 50.2% | £1,398 | £1,389 |
| Reading | 49.5% | £1,618 | £1,652 |
| Portsmouth | 49.2% | £1,316 | £1,361 |
| Luton | 49.0% | £1,303 | £1,355 |
| Cardiff | 48.0% | £1,243 | £1,347 |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 48.0% | £1,212 | £1,315 |
| Norwich | 47.9% | £1,184 | £1,287 |
| Southampton | 47.5% | £1,298 | £1,435 |
| Nottingham | 47.2% | £1,130 | £1,263 |
| York | 47.2% | £1,266 | £1,418 |
| Leicester | 46.0% | £1,111 | £1,304 |
| Northampton | 45.1% | £1,157 | £1,411 |
| Birmingham | 44.9% | £1,197 | £1,471 |
| Glasgow | 44.8% | £1,242 | £1,531 |
| Leeds | 44.7% | £1,165 | £1,440 |
| Plymouth | 42.9% | £1,079 | £1,436 |
| Wolverhampton | 41.0% | £1,037 | £1,494 |
| Sheffield | 40.6% | £1,034 | £1,512 |
| Liverpool | 40.4% | £1,048 | £1,545 |
| Belfast | 40.0% | £1,076 | £1,611 |
| Newport | 39.4% | £1,024 | £1,578 |
| Coventry | 38.9% | £1,110 | £1,745 |
| Swansea | 38.3% | £962 | £1,547 |
| Sunderland | 36.3% | £833 | £1,463 |
| Middlesbrough | 35.9% | £862 | £1,540 |
| Bradford | 35.7% | £872 | £1,568 |
| Dundee | 35.7% | £894 | £1,611 |
| Derby | 34.9% | £967 | £1,807 |
| Stoke-on-Trent | 33.7% | £832 | £1,636 |
| Hull | 33.2% | £816 | £1,639 |
| Aberdeen | 31.9% | £921 | £1,966 |
Why some cities punch above their weight
The result is counter-intuitive in several cases. London has the highest median gross pay in the country but consistently underperforms on disposable income because rent and council tax absorb a disproportionate share. Northern and Midlands cities with lower gross pay often beat London on the bottom line.
The Scottish cities face a unique structural penalty - the Scottish higher-rate threshold (£43,662 for 2026/27) is approximately £6,600 below the rest-of-UK threshold. Edinburgh and Aberdeen in particular have high gross pay relative to other UK cities, but the steeper tax band kicks in earlier, eroding the advantage. Scottish council tax tends to be lower than English equivalents (though Scottish Water charges are billed on top), partially offsetting the income-tax disadvantage.
Regional Income Tax effect (Scotland vs rest-of-UK)
For Scottish-resident workers on 2026/27 bands, Scottish Income Tax overtakes the rest-of-UK liability above roughly £33,500 of gross pay (below that, the 19% starter rate leaves Scots slightly better off). At the UK median full-time salary the gap is small - approximately £64 more per year, rising to about £98 on Edinburgh's median pay. At £50,000 the gap widens to roughly £1,500 a year, and at £100,000 the Scottish taxpayer pays approximately £3,300 more annually.
Quotable findings for media use
- Across 40 UK cities surveyed for 2026/27, disposable income (post-tax, post-rent, post-council-tax) ranges from £10,906 (Brighton and Hove) to £23,598 (Aberdeen) - a gap of £12,692 per year.
- The 40-city UK average disposable income on local median pay is £17,064 a year, or £1,422 a month for non-housing spending.
- London has the highest housing burden in the UK: 72.3% of net take-home goes to rent and Council Tax Band D combined.
- Aberdeen has the lightest housing burden among major UK cities at 31.9% of net take-home.
- For Scottish-resident workers, the £43,662 higher-rate threshold (approximately £6,600 below the rest-of-UK £50,270) costs an Edinburgh or Glasgow median earner roughly £60-£100 a year in additional Income Tax versus a counterpart in equivalent English cities - but the penalty accelerates sharply above £43,662, reaching roughly £1,500 at £50,000.
- Counter-intuitively, several northern and Midlands UK cities deliver higher disposable income on local median pay than London - despite London having the highest gross pay - because London rent and council tax consume a larger share of net take-home.
Methodology
City-level data drawn from src/data/cost-of-living.ts in the salarytax.uk repository:
- Median gross weekly pay: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2025 Table 7 (workplace basis; Belfast from NISRA ASHE 2025). Converted to annual by × 52.
- Typical 2-bed rent: ONS Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) 2-bed average by local authority. Annualised × 12.
- Council Tax Band D: published 2026/27 rates (MHCLG for England, gov.wales for Wales), Scottish Government statistics (Scotland). Band D used as the standardised reference band.
Tax calculation runs each city's annual median through the 2026/27 ruleset at src/data/tax/uk-2026-27.ts, applying the correct regional bands:
- Scottish cities (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee): Scottish Income Tax 6-band system
- Welsh cities (Cardiff, Swansea, Newport): Welsh Rates of Income Tax (currently identical to rUK)
- NI cities (Belfast): rest-of-UK bands (Income Tax not devolved); domestic Rates used in place of Council Tax
- All other cities: England/rUK bands
Assumptions: no workplace pension contribution, no student loan, full Personal Allowance. Real-world disposable income for a specific household varies based on these factors plus dependents, transport, childcare and other costs.
Full data provenance + every source URL at salarytax.uk/methodology.
About this report
Original data report produced by salarytax.uk and republishable in part or whole with attribution to salarytax.uk. Specific calculator permalinks for journalist drill-down:
- UK cost of living calculator - city profiles
- Salary buying-power calculator - what each gross buys in each city
- Council tax calculator - per-LA rates
- UK salary calculator - model your own income
Companion reports:
- UK Marginal Tax Rate Map 2026/27
- UK Fiscal Drag Cost Since 2021
- UK Take-Home Pay by Profession 2026/27
Press contact and full quotable assertions at salarytax.uk/press.