Rate peg set for 2025-26

Published on 02 October 2024

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of NSW (IPART) announced this week that it has set a 2025-26 rate peg for Kiama Council of 3.7%.

The rate peg is the maximum percentage amount by which a council may increase its general income for the year.

This year IPART used its new rate peg methodology, which was developed after extensive consultation with stakeholders. Kiama Council put in a submission and supports IPART’s ongoing work in this area.

The core rate peg for the 2025-26 financial year for each council across NSW (i.e. before applying the population factor) ranges from 3.6% to 5.1%.

IPART’s rate peg takes into account the Base Cost Change (BCC) by council group (metropolitan, regional and rural), in addition to a population factor based on each council’s population growth and an Emergency Services Levy (ESL) factor to reflect annual changes in each council’s ESL contributions that differ from the changes to the council’s BCC.

The population factor in the rate peg maintains the amount of rates collected per person in areas that have a growing population. The final rate peg for the 2025-26 financial year for each council (after applying the population factor) ranges from 3.7% to 7.6%.

Kiama Council’s core rate peg was 3.6% and final rate peg was 3.7%.