Hunter Water has welcomed the release of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal’s (IPART) final pricing determination, and will continue strengthening water security and supporting growth over the next five years.
The utility said that the investment proposed under for its 2025–30 pricing period will allow it to keep delivering high-quality, reliable and safe water and wastewater services, ensuring the Lower Hunter community will have a secure water future.
Hunter Water Managing Director, Darren Cleary, said the region continues to grow and a safe and secure water supply is more important than ever.
“Hunter Water is proud of its role as a foundation for regional prosperity and protecting our precious waterways,” he said.
“We’ve been very conscious of keeping customers at the heart of our decision making as we focused our efforts on balancing the need to invest in critical infrastructure while keeping bills affordable for customers.
“The costs of providing our essential water and wastewater services are rising. Prices will increase over the next five years to ensure we can continue to deliver reliable, high-quality services and secure our region’s water future.
“Cost-of-living and its impact on our customers has been front of mind for us in ensuring we invest prudently and efficiently. This has included setting ourselves an ambitious cost efficiency target and extensively prioritising our investment program by focusing on the outcomes that matter most to our customers.
“During extensive community consultation with more than 9000 customers, the views and needs of our customers and community have helped to shape our new prices. We will recover most of the cost increases through our variable water charge.
Mr Cleary said that while no price increases are desirable, this approach provides the best opportunity for customers to influence their bill by managing water use around their homes. The water usage price will rise from $2.89/kL to $4.40/kL by 2029–30.
“Bills for a typical household customer receiving water and wastewater services will increase, on average, by $86 (or 6.9 per cent) including inflation from 1 July 2025 until 30 June 2026. Typical bills then increase by an average of $53 (or 3.8 per cent) a year plus inflation, in each of the following four financial years until 30 June 2030.
According to Mr Cleary, this would see typical household bills increase from $1241 in 2024–25 to $1540 by 2029–30, plus inflation.
“We are investing almost $1.6 billion in capital works, with the Belmont Desalination Plant a large part of that investment to improve water security for the region. We are also upgrading our existing infrastructure to ensure we can meet future growth and demand,” he said.
“In addition to the desalination plant and servicing growth, we will invest in improving service reliability for localised areas, carbon emissions reduction and water conservation, because our customers have told us these are important to them.
“We’ve strengthened our customer support programs, providing a range of assistance and services to help customers manage their bill, including flexible payment options with Easy Pay or providing extra time to make a payment.
“We will also continue to work with our large volume water users to develop Water Efficiency Management Plans (WEMPs) to maximise water efficiency and deliver water savings for their business.”
Hunter Water said it will remain accountable to and transparent with the community through the newly created Community Committee, comprising around 50 demographically representative individuals who will mark Hunter Water’s ‘report card’ and ensure the utility delivers on the promises in its pricing proposal.
Alongside the new group, the long-running Customer and Community Advisory Group is being refreshed and will evolve to become the Stakeholder Advisory Forum, continuing to represent a range of interest groups and constituents.
New prices come into effect on 1 July 2025. For further information, visit www.hunterwater.com.au/pricing
