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.

We’ve worked hard to ensure the engagement process for our price submission is inclusive and accessible to everyone. We’ve provided a range of opportunities for participation, enabling input from customers and communities across our service region. Importantly, our customers have helped shape the process and set the agenda for our deliberative forum.

Our deliberative forum has concluded

On Saturday 14 June 2025, we wrapped up the final session of our Deliberative Forum — a key part of shaping our 2026 Price Submission.

During this special Recall Day, we reconnected with 21 of our forum participants to show how their insights from earlier this year have directly influenced our draft proposal. From tariff structures to service standards, their voices have helped shape the future of our services.

We shared updates on our modelling, pricing impacts, and how we’ve integrated their recommendations to the maximum extent possible. This session marked a major step in our engagement journey — and we’re incredibly grateful to everyone who’s been part of it.

Our Deliberative Forum consisted of 35 diverse and broadly representative customers and community members, selected through an independent process to ensure fair representation across age, gender, and other demographics.

The panel met over five days to provide advice and innovation in formulating solutions to the following question:

“Our communities are growing and our climate is changing. How do we work together to plan for the future so we can continue to provide safe, reliable, sustainable and affordable services for now and generations to come?”

The process focused on the following:

• How North East Water balances fixed and volumetric charges on bills
• How North East Water balances investment in growth and compliance with affordability
• Should North East Water raise, lower or keep our current service standards for water and wastewater systems.

The panel has now provided a clear set of recommendations, which we will incorporate into our next Price Submission as much as possible. If we are unable to adopt certain recommendations, we will provide clear reasons why.

Once the submission has been developed, which we will present back to forum members in June before submitting it to the ESC in September.

We thank our amazing panel members for their time, insights, and contributions to this important process.

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.