The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal’s (IPART), has released a draft determination on the prices Hunter Water can charge for water, wastewater and stormwater services from 1 July 2025.
Hunter Water welcomed the release of the report and said this marks a significant milestone in the 2025–30 pricing process.
Hunter Water undertook extensive community consultation with more than 9000 customers, including Hunter Water’s Community Panel and broad engagement with stakeholders in developing its Pricing Proposal.
Hunter Water Managing Director, Darren Cleary, said IPART’s Draft Report recognised Hunter Water’s efforts to balance the need to invest in critical infrastructure, while keeping bills affordable for customers.
“We’re pleased to see IPART’s draft report acknowledges the importance of maintaining and renewing our essential services to meet the needs of a growing population and changing climate.
“The draft report also recognises that our proposal has been shaped by the views and needs of our customers and community, with IPART grading our proposal as ‘Advanced’ under its framework,” Mr Cleary said.
The draft report supports Hunter Water’s plans to invest almost $1.6 billion in capital works, with the Belmont Desalination Plant a large part of that investment, to provide additional water security to the region.
“Our community has played an important role in helping decide how much to invest in improving service reliability for localised areas, carbon emissions reductions and water conservation,” Mr Cleary said.
“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.
“We’ve also strengthened our overall support for our customers experiencing financial hardship, and we’ll continue to provide a range of assistance programs and support services to help them pay their bill,” Mr Cleary said.
IPART has invited the community to have their say on the draft report during IPART’s public consultation period, between 8 April and 6 May 2025, before IPART makes its final determination in June 2025.
New prices will apply for the five-year period starting 1 July 2025.
More information on the draft report and how to provide feedback is available on: https://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/review/water-metro-pricing/prices-hunter-water-corporation-1-july-2025
