# Postcode Council

> Postcode council checker: a free lookup that finds your council from a postcode, or both councils in a two-tier area, and which one handles bins, tax or roads.

## Key facts

- Large parts of England are two-tier, meaning a county council and a district, borough or city council both cover the same postcode and do different things.
- gov.uk lists county council responsibilities as education, transport, planning, fire and public safety, social care, libraries, waste management and trading standards.
- gov.uk lists district, borough and city council responsibilities as rubbish collection, recycling, Council Tax collections, housing and planning applications.
- In unitary authorities, London boroughs and metropolitan boroughs, one tier of local government provides all of those local services.
- Planning appears in both tiers' lists: a household planning application is a district matter, while the development plan and minerals and waste planning sit with the county.
- Waste appears in both lists too: collection is the district's job and disposal is the county's, which is why a missed bin and a recycling policy question go to different councils.
- Parish, community and town councils provide a narrow set of things including allotments, public clocks, bus shelters, community centres and play areas, and can issue fines for litter, graffiti, fly posting and dog offences.
- Fire, police and public transport are commonly delivered through joint authorities rather than by the council itself.

## Key pages

- [Postcode to council lookup: which council handles it?](https://postcodecouncil.co.uk/): the main tool, answer above the fold.
- [Two-tier councils explained: why two councils cover one postcode](https://postcodecouncil.co.uk/two-tier-councils-explained/): In much of England a county council and a district council both cover you. What each does, and the three services that appear in both lists.
- [Which council for which service, service by service](https://postcodecouncil.co.uk/which-council-for-which-service/): Bins, roads, schools, planning, social care, licensing and the rest, allocated to a tier, with the ones people most often misdirect flagged.
- [Parish, community and town councils: what they can actually do](https://postcodecouncil.co.uk/parish-and-town-councils/): The most approachable council in a village holds the fewest powers. The specific list, what it cannot decide, and where it is genuinely useful.
- [Postcode to council lookup, and where the boundary problems are](https://postcodecouncil.co.uk/postcode-lookup-and-boundaries/): The free lookup is on gov.uk and it is the right tool. Where a postcode genuinely straddles a boundary, and what to do when the answer looks wrong.
- [Which UK council does what, by tier, 2026](https://postcodecouncil.co.uk/#data): original data table, updated 2026-08-15.
- [Full site content as markdown](https://postcodecouncil.co.uk/llms-full.txt)

## Data

- Which UK council does what, by tier, 2026. Methodology: Every service list in this table is quoted from gov.uk's guidance on how councils work, read on 15 August 2026, which sets out the responsibilities of county councils, of district, borough and city councils, of unitary authorities and London and metropolitan boroughs, and of parish, community and town councils. Where the table says a service is provided through a joint authority, that follows gov.uk's own statement that in single-tier areas some services such as fire, police and public transport are delivered through joint authorities. Rows for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are deliberately thin: gov.uk's guidance covers England and refers readers to separate government websites for the other three nations, and this table does not restate service lists we have not read at source. Nothing here is estimated, no council is named, and no performance or cost figure appears, because none is published by a single authority for all councils and a figure invented for this page would be worse than none. Local government structure changes as areas reorganise, so the date at the top of this page is the date the lists were read.
- Last updated: 2026-08-15. Every figure cites its source inline.
- Source: gov.uk, find your local council: https://www.gov.uk/find-local-council
- Source: gov.uk, understand how your council works: https://www.gov.uk/understand-how-your-council-works
- Source: ONS Geoportal, administrative boundaries and lookups: https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/
- Source: ONS, the administrative geography of England and its council codes: https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/geography/ukgeographies/administrativegeography/england
- Source: postcodes.io, the data behind the postcode lookup (ONS Postcode Directory): https://postcodes.io/docs/overview/
- Source: gov.uk, buying and selling your home: https://www.gov.uk/buy-sell-your-home

## Citation

Cite as: "Which UK council does what, by tier, 2026", Postcode Council, https://postcodecouncil.co.uk/ (updated 2026-08-15).

## About

- Postcode Council is an information site. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to gov.uk, the Office for National Statistics, any local authority or any government body. It holds no copy of the postcode directory: a postcode typed into the checker is looked up from your browser on postcodes.io, an open-source service that loads the ONS Postcode Directory each quarter, and the official lookup on gov.uk, which is free and authoritative, is where each council's own website is listed. What this site adds is which council handles which service once the lookup has named them. Every service list here is quoted from gov.uk's own guidance and read on the date shown at the top of the page. Local government structure changes as areas reorganise, so check that date before relying on a tier split, and where a bill or the electoral register disagrees with a lookup, the council named on the bill is the reliable answer.
- Operated by postcodecouncil.co.uk. Contact: enquiries@postcodecouncil.co.uk