Overview
We provide water and sewerage services to 39 towns across north-east Victoria. Generally, every five years, we determine our fees and charges through a price submission process. This sets the services we’ll provide and the prices customers will pay from 1 July 2026.
The Essential Services Commission (ESC) reviews and approves this plan to ensure our prices are fair and meet community expectations.
Price submission process
Guidance and preparation
The ESC provides us with detailed guidelines outlining the requirements for our price submission. This includes the regulatory framework we must adhere to and the expectations for our proposed prices and services.
Customer engagement
We will actively engage with our customers to understand their needs, preferences and priorities. This feedback will be instrumental in shaping our price submission.
Developing our proposal
Using the guidance from the ESC and the feedback from our customers, we will develop a comprehensive price submission. This will detail our proposed prices, planned investments and the service standards we aim to achieve over the next five years.
Submission to the ESC
Once our proposal is ready, we will submit it to the ESC for review. The ESC will assess our submission to ensure it meets regulatory requirements and provides value for money.
Our engagement activities so far
Throughout our price submission process, there have been multiple opportunities for our customers and communities to provide feedback and views on our water and sewer services.
We have held 17 pop-up kiosks in the following towns:
- Beechworth
- Benalla
- Bright
- Corryong
- Eskdale
- Goorambat
- Mount Beauty
- Moyhu
- Myrtleford
- Rutherglen
- Tallangatta
- Tungamah
- Walwa
- Wangaratta
- Wodonga
- Yackandandah
- Yarrawonga
We have also held online focus groups with:
- Older customers
- Renters
- Customers experiencing financial difficulty
- Newly arrived customers
- Customers living with a disability
- Younger customers
More than 200 customers have participated in an online survey, sharing their expectations for water and sewer services through eight targeted questions.
We hosted a webinar to explain the price submission process, detailing how we set our charges, plan capital investments, and establish service standards for the next five-year pricing period. This is available to watch here.
We've used this video to explain the price submission process.
We are actively promoting the price submission process and our engagement activities across North East Water's five social media channels and various Facebook community pages throughout the region.
How you can be involved
- We're holding further focus groups across five different customer groups to explore what drives customers to pay more or less for certain services. Register your interest here.
- We have more engagement opportunities planned for key stakeholders, including First Nations peoples, industrial customers, local governments, and developers.
- A bill simulator will soon be available, allowing you to explore how different scenarios or tariff structures could impact your bill.
- Additionally, a new online survey will focus on identifying your priorities as a valued customer.
- We will also host further webinars tailored to local council areas within our service region, providing opportunities for more in-depth engagement on the price submission process and master planning.
- Lastly, we will convene a multi-day deliberative forum to review and explore feedback from all of our engagement activities. Learn more about this process here or register your interest in participating here.
Engagement gallery
