Rodney Stevens

Clarence Valley Council has indicated it will apply the Final Rate Peg for 2024-2025 awarded by IPART of 4.7 per-cent which will see rates increase next financial year.

The rate peg, announced by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal IPART on Tuesday November 21, is the maximum percentage amount by which a council may increase its general income for the year.

For the 2024-2025 financial year IPART employed a new methodology to calculate the Rate Peg which includes a Base Cost Change, a Superannuation adjustment, Emergency Services Levy and an Emergency Services adjustment, to which a population factor is added to get the Final Rate Peg.

Clarence Valley Council’s CVC’s rate peg for 2023-24 was 5.4 per-cent, when the inflation figure at that time was 6.8 per-cent, and the 2024-25 rate peg is still behind the September quarter inflation figure of 5.4 per-cent.

A Clarence Valley Council spokesperson said IPART recently reviewed and updated the methodology used to set the rate peg for the 2024-25 financial year with a view to producing rate pegs that more accurately reflect the increase in costs for each council.

The rate pegs for the 2024-25 financial year are based on employee cost increases, forecast inflation and council-specific changes in Emergency Services Levy contributions and population growth.

Clarence Valley Council was awarded a Rate peg of 4.7 per-cent and will apply the full rate peg when completing its works and budget programming for 2024/2025.

The 2024/2025 draft operational plan, including draft budget, will be presented at the April Ordinary Council Meeting for public exhibition.