Shaping our water future - 2025-2030 Price Proposal
2025-2030 Price Proposal - Stage 3
Overview
We would like your help to shape our water and wastewater services to the end of the decade, so that we can make sure our services meet your needs and deliver community value.
Find out what we learned from you in our Stage 1 Engagement Summary and Stage 2 Engagement Summary.
What to expect
Our engagement will be carried out in phases so our customers and community will see and hear from us at different times throughout the development of our pricing proposal.
We are now in the deliberative stage of our engagement. Results from the first two stages of engagement, along with feedback from other customer and community engagement, will be given to a new representative community panel. The community panel will be statistically representative of various customer segments to ensure good representation, and selected at random to remove biases. The panel will consider all the evidence and provide recommendations for the good of the entire community. The panel’s views and preferences will be incorporated to the maximum extent possible.
Stage 3 Deliberative Community Panel
Invitations were sent to 12,000 randomly selected customers and community members in the Hunter region. Selection was managed by an independent specialist recruitment organisation.
The people who registered their interest were placed in a pool, and another random sample was undertaken to select a final panel of 45 people that reflects the diversity of our customers and community.
The community panel will meet for six days between November and March to help us meet the challenges we face.
Our Challenge
Hunter Water's costs of providing water services are increasing. These higher costs will be passed on to customers through increased prices. We are also faced with some important decisions that will impact customer bills.
How do we balance providing reliable, high-quality services, while protecting the environment, creating a positive legacy for future generations, and keeping prices affordable?
Timeline
July - December 2022
Stage 1 - Exploring customer and community values and experiences
Understanding your values and priorities as well as your interest and expectations for participation in decision making.
January - June 2023
Quantifying customer and community values
Understanding what value you place on the experiences, interests, concerns and priorities identified in stage 1.
August 2023 - April 2024
Stage 3 - Quantifying customer and community values
Customer and community deliberation on the topics that have been investigated in phase 1 and valued in stage 2.
April - May 2024
Stage 4 - Confirm and validate
Testing and validating with customers and community what we learned in stage 3.
JUNE - AUGUST 2024
Stage 5 - Close the loop
Closing the loop with customers and community about how their feedback has been incorporated in our pricing proposal.
SEPTEMBER 2024
Stage 6 - Submit Price Proposal to IPART
Final price proposal to IPART.
OCTOBER 2024 - JUNE 2025
Stage 7 - IPART review of Price Submission and determination
IPART reviews the pricing submission and makes it's price determination.