The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) of New South Wales has announced Sydney Water’s prices for the four years to June 2016, with the prices determined to go up by less than the inflation rate over the period.

 

This means the combined water and wastewater bill for a typical residential household (using 200 kL of water a year) is proposed to decrease before inflation by $29 (or 2.6%) by 2016. If inflation is 2.5% a year, customer bills will still only rise by $72 by 2016.

 

Sydney Water Managing Director Kevin Young said the company accepted the price determination.

 

“We know there are pressures facing customers and we intend to do all we can to ensure costs are kept low,” Mr Young said.

 

“IPART has set us a challenging target of making $173 million of operating efficiencies across the organisation, and we are already making changes to meet this.”

 

 IPART has also introduced new price structures in its determination. Sydney Water welcomes any changes that mean fairer and more transparent pricing for customers.