Every five years, Melbourne Water prepares a price submission which details our proposed services in water, sewerage, waterways and drainage. It also outlines our proposed prices, service standards, infrastructure and operational investments.
Victoria's independent regulator, the Essential Services Commission (ESC), reviews and approves our submission.
Price Submission 2026-2031
We’re planning our water future with customers and community across Greater Melbourne through our Price Submission 2026. We're asking customers to help us prioritise our investments and infrastructure to deliver sustainable value.
We’re working to balance customer values with the delivery of services to meet current and future challenges. These challenges include:
- Population growth
- A changing climate
- Equity
- Ageing infrastructure
- Caring for County
- Protecting and enhancing the environment
For the latest updates, timelines, and opportunities to help shape our water future, follow the Let’s Talk page.
Your water bill
The bill you receive from your water retailer helps fund the services we deliver. Around 50 percent of your bill covers Melbourne Water’s wholesale costs for the services outlined in our submission. The rest of your bill covers your water retailer’s planned works and investments.
Price Submission 2021
We’re committed to delivering the essential services that our customers and community value now and in the future. Our 2021 submission proposed six customer outcomes and service investments across 2021-26. It also included proposed measures for reporting our performance.
- Our 2021 submission
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Download a summary of our 2021 submission or the full document, lodged with the ESC on 9 November 2020.
- Responses to ESC’s draft decision
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The ESC released their draft decision on our submission on 25 March 2021. We submitted our response to their draft decision on 4 May 2021.
The Commission released their final determination on our Price Submission on 22 June 2021. This can be viewed on the Essential Services Commission’s website.
- ESC’s final decision
- View the final decision here on the Essential Services Commission’s website.
Assessing our progress: customer outcomes performance report
We hold ourselves accountable for fulfilling our commitments to customers. Each year, we report on how we're doing on the six customer outcomes. We also report on the six programs that received an uplift in operational expenditure in our Price Submission 2021.
| The six customer outcomes for 2021-2026 are: | |
|---|---|
| 1. | Access to safe and reliable water and sewerage services |
| 2. | Melbourne’s environment, rivers, creeks and bays are protected and Melbourne Water’s greenhouse gas emissions are minimised |
| 3. | Melbourne remains liveable as it deals with the impacts of climate change and population growth |
| 4. | Melburnians are empowered to support the design and delivery of service outcomes |
| 5. | Easy, respectful, responsive and transparent customer service |
| 6. | Bills kept as low as possible |
- Our performance reports (including current 2023-2024 report)
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Download a summary of our submissions or the full document, lodged with the ESC.