Shaping the future of your water and sewer services

Every five years, Victorian water corporations must submit a pricing proposal to the state's independent economic regulator, the Essential Services Commission (ESC). This proposal outlines our customer prices, service standards and planned capital investments.

North East Water will soon lodge its 2026-31 price submission with the ESC. This follows a major community engagement program, and reflects what matters most to our customers.

We are inviting you to provide feedback on our submission through a newly released ‘Customer Summary’.

Take a moment to review our Customer Summary and let us know if we’re on the right track. Below is a snapshot of what’s included in the summary.

What we heard from you

Through extensive engagement, our customers, communities and stakeholder shared what matters to them. We heard that they are concerned about housing shortages, cost of living and caring for the environment.

They want North East Water to be:

• Fairly priced
• Sustainable
• Reliable
• Responsive
• Local

These five aspirations now form the customer commitments in our proposed price submission:

Our challenges

We must urgently invest in infrastructure across our region to ensure reliable water and wastewater services keep pace with population growth and rising standards for health, environmental protection and cybersecurity. It will also help us adapt to and reduce the impacts of climate change.

What we will deliver

We’re proposing over $250 million in infrastructure investment over five years. These will:

• Increase water and wastewater security
• Support over 9,000 new housing connections
• Create an estimated 500 local planning and construction related jobs
• Improve health and environmental compliance
• Build climate resilience into everything we do

Proposed pricing

North East Water has kept bills low for over a decade — often the lowest or second-lowest in regional Victoria. Our bills have also been $500 less than the national average for large water corporations.

From 2026 to 2031, we’re planning:

• A 5.25% yearly increase (not including inflation)
• In Year 1, bills go up by $61 — that’s about 17 cents a day
• Over five years, bills will go up by $339
• By 2031, the average bill will be $1,436, still less than the expected regional average of $1,459

We also want to make bills fairer and easier to predict. So we’re changing how we charge — placing more emphasis on fixed charges and reducing usage-based pricing. This helps renters, families, and small businesses, while still encouraging people to save water. It will also provide more secure revenue in a changing climate.

More support for customers

We want to support people who are doing it tough. That’s why we’re proposing to double our customer support program to $2 million over five years. Each year, more than 1,000 people will get help through:

• Bill relief through rebates
• Support in applying for Victorian Government grants
• Help in accessing concessions
• Essential plumbing and leak assistance

Have Your Say

Your voice matters. Here’s how you can get involved:

• Provide feedback on our Customer Summary before it goes to the ESC via this form.
• After the ESC reviews our proposal, customers will have another opportunity to provide feedbackdirectly to the Commission before a final decision is made.

Our new pricing will start from 1 July 2026 after being approved by the ESC.