New customer contributions, also known as developer charges, are one-off charges levied by water businesses on a property owner applying to connect to a water business’s works or applying to receive increased services. These charges contribute to the cost of works or the provision of services that will benefit the property.
New customer contributions establish how much a connecting party pays upfront, and what will be paid through ongoing charges by the connecting party and all other customers.
During our consultation process, we heard that most parties wanted to maintain the existing principles-based new customer contribution framework and the flexibility it provides.
The objectives of the framework are to:
send signals to developers about the costs of developing in different locations
share the costs and benefits of growth between new and existing customers
administer customer contributions for new developments in a transparent way.
The report responds to issues raised as part of the consultation and provides clarity around:
our role in establishing new customer contributions
the regulatory framework governing new customer contributions
how we can improve its administration and implementation
new customer contribution modelling principles.
Feedback on this report is welcome until 22 July 2025, and can be made via Engage Victoria.
Consultation
We commenced an extensive consultation process to get feedback from interested parties in August 2024, which included meetings with water businesses.
We will soon commence workshops with the water sector to explore engagement best practices and costing and modelling principles, and to provide further clarification on issues raised.
