Postcode to council lookup: which council actually handles it?

Find the council by postcode with gov.uk's free find your local council service. In much of England it returns two: a county and a district, borough or city council. A single-tier area returns one, so it doubles as a postcode borough checker. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have one. Our checker, on the ONS directory, says which handles what.

Type the postcode into the checker on this page. It looks it up in the ONS postcode directory through postcodes.io and names the local authority, or both where two-tier. The official postcode local authority checker is gov.uk's find your local council service, which adds each council's website and contact details. Both are free. (gov.uk, find your local council)

Yes. The checker names the borough wherever there is one. That is the London borough, the metropolitan borough council, or in a two-tier area the district, borough or city council beside its county council. London boroughs and metropolitan boroughs are single-tier councils providing all the local services, per gov.uk. (gov.uk, understand how your council works)

Most postcodes sit inside one council, and that council covers every address in it. A minority straddle a boundary: town edges, new developments and wide rural postcodes. There your address decides, not your postcode. The council named on your council tax bill is the reliable answer; our boundaries guide sets out how to tell.

Because much of England has two tiers. gov.uk lists county duties as education, transport, planning, fire and public safety, social care, libraries, waste management and trading standards. District, borough and city councils handle rubbish collection, recycling, Council Tax collections, housing and planning applications. Roads are county, bins district, social care county, housing district.

The county council in a two-tier area, as the highway authority. It is the most misdirected service in English local government: the road outside feels local but is upper-tier. In a unitary authority, London borough or metropolitan borough it is the single council. In London, TfL-managed roads are the exception: Transport for London runs a specific set of major routes.

The district, borough or city council in a two-tier area. Planning appears in both tiers' lists, hence the confusion. The county holds the development plan, minerals and waste planning and county developments such as schools. The district decides household and most commercial applications, so a house extension is district. In a single-tier area, one council does both.

A narrow set: allotments, public clocks, bus shelters, community centres and play areas, gov.uk says, plus fines for litter, graffiti, fly posting and dog offences. They are consulted on planning applications but cannot decide them. They do not collect bins, maintain roads or provide social care. They help with land they own, and as a route to larger councils.

Generally not. Single-tier areas get fire, police and public transport through joint authorities, gov.uk notes, broadly true elsewhere too. Police answer to a commissioner or a mayor; fire to a fire authority. Outside London buses are largely commercial; the council or a combined authority plans services, supported routes and concessionary travel. The road itself, street lighting included, stays the council's.

No. The two-tier split is English. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have one tier of principal councils. One council covers you. gov.uk's guidance covers England and refers readers to each nation's government website, as service lists differ. Northern Ireland's councils hold notably narrower functions than Great Britain's; central departments run several services.