Households in Sydney, the Illawarra and the Blue Mountains will save up to $100 a year on water bills over the next four years
Water bills in Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra will be reduced by around $100 per year for four years from July 1 2016, an independent tribunal has announced.
The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) has released its final pricing determination, which will bring down water bills across Greater Sydney from 1 July 2016 to ease cost of living pressures for households.
Minister for Water Niall Blair said this is the first time households in Greater Sydney will experience a water bill reduction.
“This is a great day for households in Sydney, with this decision to decrease water bills for the next four years,” Mr Blair said.
Minister Blair said Sydney Water had invested over $2 billion into the city’s water infrastructure over the past four years, and will do the same over the next four years.
Sydney Water Managing Director Kevin Young said the savings are the result of efficiency measures implemented under his management.
“In the last four years, we’ve set ourselves efficiency targets which were hard to achieve but we’ve met them,” he said.
“We’ve reduced numbers but we’ve also traded off some of those services to the private sector.”
Efficiencies have included a reduction in Sydney Water staff from 3,000 employees to less than 2,500.
