Sydney Water has proposed increasing water bills by one-third over the next five years, warning the bump is needed to avoid the risk of households having to boil their water during incidents affecting water quality.
The proposal, which would push an average bill up to $1491 a year, is contained in a submission to the water pricing regulator, released on Monday. It warned that failing to raise enough money for capital investment was a risk to water quality and housing supply.
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Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, an independent think tank, agreed that IPART’s draft created “significant risks” for housing supply, when there were already well-documented instances of “newly constructed greenfield dwellings … left vacant while waiting for necessary water connections”. This would “jeopardise the government’s ability to meet its housing targets”.
The Justice and Equity Centre applauded IPART for attempting to keep the cost of water bills down, questioning why consumers “bear the full cost on bills of major investments upgrading and expanding water infrastructure”. Water users “struggle to understand why their cost is recovered on bills, rather than the government budget”, it said.
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