The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) has released its draft decision on Central Coast Council’s request to increase water rates from July 1.
IPART Chair Carmel Donnelly said the IPART’s draft decisions would allow the annual bill for typical household using 170 kilolitres per year to increase by 8.7% plus inflation in 2026-27.
It woujld increase by inflation only in each of the next 4 years.
Bills for a typical household customer receiving water and wastewater services would increase by $129 before inflation, IPART said.
WIth IPART’s estimate of inflation, the total increase would be 11.9% bringing the average household increase up to $176.
The typical bill would be $1,659 in 2026-27.
However, bill impacts will vary depending on household type and water use.
“The Tribunal considered a range of matters in setting the draft maximum prices including social impacts, the cost of providing water and wastewater services, standards of quality, reliability and safety, and more,” Ms Donnelly said.
“We know that many households and businesses are dealing with cost-of-living pressures, and affordability was a key theme in the feedback we received on our issues paper and from our public hearing.
“The Tribunal aims to balance customers’ affordability concerns with the need to set prices so CCC Water can efficiently invest in infrastructure and services to deliver services that meet customer needs and expectations in the future,” Ms Donnelly said.
“These prices are draft only and IPART will continue to work through issues raised in this review as we make the final price decisions.
”We will take into account important updated information we are seeking from Central Coast Council on the amount of CCC Water funds available that could offset price increases and also CCC Water’s capacity to efficiently deliver infrastructure works to improve service quality in the next 5 years,” she said.
“We are keen to hear from customers of CCC Water, whether they are households or businesses.
The Tribunal’s final decisions on water related prices will consider all feedback from customers and stakeholders.”
IPART’s draft report and ways to have your say are available on IPART’s website.
Stakeholder feedback is via submission or customer survey on or before May 1.
IPART will publish a final report with final pricing decisions in June with prices to apply from July 1.
IPART is separately reviewing an application by Central Coast
Council for a special rate variation to increase its general income from rates by 12.8% and will publish a decision on that application in June 2026.
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