Shaping our water future - 2025-2030 Price Proposal

Most of the prices we charge are set by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) based on the efficient costs of providing water and wastewater (sewer) services to our region. IPART sets our prices every three to five years, with adjustments for inflation in between reviews.

IPART will review our proposal over nine months so that when it makes its pricing decisions, it can be confident that customers pay no more than they need to. Part of that review involves checking that we’re being efficient and that there aren’t better ways of delivering services. Our next pricing reset is on 1 July 2025 for the next five years (2025-2030).

Like other industries, the costs of providing our essential water and wastewater (sewer) services are increasing and are expected to rise further over the next five years. This includes the cost of running and maintaining our extensive network of plants, pumps and pipes, building new infrastructure to secure our region’s water future and cater to growth, as well as increases in electricity prices and interest rates.

We expect customer bills may rise between five to six per cent each year over the next five years (2025-2030).

Compared to a current typical bill, we estimate our customers will pay around $170 more each year before inflation. Just over half of this amount (an estimated $90 per year) will contribute to new investments to meet our future water needs such as the Belmont Desalination Plant, which will play a key part in securing the Lower Hunter’s water supply for generations to come.

The typical household bill for a homeowner is currently around $1,340 per year (excluding stormwater services).

We’re planning to build a permanent desalination plant at Belmont. A permanent plant is a key action in the Lower Hunter Water Security Plan.

Building the plant will add up to 30 million litres per day of rainfall-independent drinking water capacity to our system, or about 15 per cent of the region’s average daily needs.

The site at Belmont provided the best option for a number of reasons including its ability to connect to our water system, proximity to the ocean and low levels of community disruption and impacts due to the relatively re

To design and construct the permanent Belmont Desalination Plant, we anticipate investing $530 million. We estimate $90 per year on a typical household bill is required to fund the plant.

We always strive to be efficient and continuously improve. We have one of the lowest operating costs per property, compared to other water utilities across Australia.

We're actively working on our efficiency strategy to make sure we achieve the savings we’re building into the proposed increase. We’ll also continue to challenge ourselves to find more savings, right up until we submit our Pricing Proposal in September this year.

Pensioner bills are currently around $726 per year. We anticipate their bills will increase by around $41 per year. That’s for a household of one or two people who own their own home, live in a house, have relatively low water use (100kL per year), and receive a pensioner rebate.
At this stage, this estimate is an assumption that the current rebate stays the same. We’ll work with the NSW government, who funds pensioner rebates, so we get the best rebate we can for pensioners in our region.

From our research we know that the proportion of respondents that either don’t have enough to meet basic expenses or are just meeting basic expenses has doubled in the last two years, while the proportion who say they ‘live comfortably’ has halved.

We will continue to support our customers experiencing financial hardship, whether it’s short term or more personalised support on an ongoing basis.

We know that some of our customers are facing very real cost of living challenges. That’s why we have a local, understanding team that’s here to help. We have a range of options to help manage your payments and support to pay your water bill. You can:

Make your bill more manageable - With Easy Pay, you can split your bill into weekly, fortnightly or monthly payments. Set up online or chat with our team on 1300 657 657.

Get extra time to make a payment - You can apply for a payment extension directly from your My Account or use our online request form.

Get personalised support - Our team can assess your situation and offer a range of support options such as interest payment relief, account credits and even help to fix your plumbing problems. You can contact us the way you feel comfortable:
Call us on 1300 657 657
Email enquiries@huntwater.com.au
Speak with us on Live chat via our website (during business hours)

Hunter Water is a State Owned Corporation. We operate like a commercial business, which means we are required to pay a dividend on our Net Profit After Tax to our shareholder (the NSW Government) each year. We have paid a dividend every year since being corporatised in the late 1980s.

Our dividends do not impact on capital spending or our customer service levels. How the dividend is spent is a matter for the NSW Government.