Hawkesbury City Council welcomes the determination of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) to support Council's Special Rates Variation application in full.
Council applied to raise the total amount of rates it can collect by 8.66% per year over the next four years. The additional rates raised will be spent exclusively to improve and maintain our City's roads and infrastructure for the benefit of all residents and businesses, with a particular focus on roads.
The SRV is an increase in annual Council rates payable by all property owners over and above the annual rate-pegged limit set by IPART. It is applied only to the rates portion of your quarterly statement – not the total amount which includes waste, stormwater and other charges.
We understand that no one likes to see their bills go up, but this rise was carefully considered to balance the community's desire and need for improved roads and services, with what is fair and achievable for our ratepayers.
Hawkesbury residents were the most informed and engaged per capita out of all councils that applied for an SRV this year, with 705 formal submissions and 510 survey submissions to IPART. This followed an extensive two month awareness and community consultation campaign by Council which included 25,000 letters and 10,950 community newsletters sent to ratepayers, online awareness campaign via social media and website and email, four well-attended in-person and online community information sessions, and a Capacity to Pay analysis. Council received more than 2,300 formal submissions in response, as well as a statistically valid survey of 400 residents.
IPART's determination will now allow Council to finalise its Draft Operational Plan 2026/2027, which will return to the 16 June 2026 Council Meeting for adoption, including the proposed roads and parks projects that will be funded by the SRV in the coming financial year.
Council offers financial hardship support, including payment arrangements for rates. Residents facing difficulties can contact the Customer Experience Team for support on 4560 4444.
Read IPART's determination in full at https://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/cm9_documents/Final-Report-Hawkesbury-City-Council-2026-27-Special-Variation.PDF
