Overview

The Essential Services Commission has released its final decision on the maximum prices Melbourne Water may charge for its services from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2026 on 22 June 2021.

View our final decision (PDF, 1006KB) and price determination (PDF, 628KB). You can also view our media release.

This review is relevant to water customers living in and around the Melbourne metropolitan area

Melbourne Water provides wholesale water supply and sewage management services to retail water corporations that we also regulate. These retail water corporations are City West Water, South East Water, Yarra Valley Water, Western Water, Barwon Water, South Gippsland Water and Westernport Water.

Melbourne Water also provides drainage and waterways services in and around Melbourne.

Key facts from our final decision

Our final decision approved revenue of $7.9 billion over the five year period starting 1 July 2021. As a result, prices will fall adding to price reductions proposed by Melbourne Water. This translates to a average bill reduction of around $20 in 2021-22 year for a typical residential household.

Melburnians will continue to receive high quality drinking water, safe treatment and disposal of sewage, and new investment in waterways and drainage. Melbourne Water will continue to reduce its environmental footprint and respond to climate change.

Melbourne Water proposes a five-year regulatory period starting 1 July 2021. Our final decision approves maximum prices for a five-year regulatory period.

How we engaged

We invited feedback from stakeholders on Melbourne Water's price proposal, our consultation paper and our draft decision via Engage Victoria before we made a final decision and price determination.

For further details on our engagement process and how we considered issues raised in submissions, please refer to our public engagement summary report.

Read our decision

Final decision

Draft decision

This draft decision set out our views on Melbourne Water’s price submission. This paper should be read together with Melbourne Water’s price submission.
Melbourne Water draft decision: 2021 water price review (Word, 4.89MB)
MS Word (4.77 MB)
Melbourne Water draft decision: 2021 water price review customer fact sheet (Word, 125KB)
MS Word (124.54 KB)

On 19 April 2021, we published:

  1. A report (PDF, 633.24KB) by our consultant Prof. John Rose on Melbourne Water’s willingness to pay study. The report was used to inform our draft decision on Melbourne Water’s engagement of the issues outlined in the report and approach to establishing willingness to pay for additional waterways and drainage services.
  2. A letter (PDF, 71.66) to Melbourne Water responding to a request for clarification on footnote 15 of our draft decision.

Melbourne Water's proposal

Melbourne Water's proposal contains three documents: a presentation, a community summary and the price submission.
Melbourne Water 2021 price submission - including supplement (word version)
MS Word (6.53 MB)

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About us

The Essential Services Commission is an independent regulator that promotes the long term interests of Victorian consumers with respect to the price, quality and reliability of essential services. We regulate Victoria’s energy, water and transport sectors, and administer the local government Fair Go Rates system.