2025 higher cap applications

The Minister for Local Government has set the average rate cap for the 2025-26 financial year at 3 per cent. If a council wished to increase its average rates for this financial year by more than this amount, it had until 31 March 2025 to apply for a higher cap. 

Higher cap applications we are currently considering

We aim to make a decision on each application within two months of receiving the application.

How ratepayers and community members can have their say

We expect councils to have engaged with their ratepayers and the community prior to submitting a higher cap application and to outline in their application how they have taken into account the views of ratepayers and the community in proposing the higher cap.

If your council has applied for a higher cap, or is considering applying for a higher cap, you should contact your council in the first instance to obtain more information or raise any concerns you may have.

It is important to note that a council that has notified us by 31 January of an intention to apply for a higher cap is not bound to go ahead with an application. Councils had until 31 March to submit their applications.

Once we receive a higher cap application from a council, we will upload it to our website together with any supporting documentation provided by the council. We aim to complete our assessment and release our decision on our website within two months of receiving the application.

If you believe you have information that is relevant to our assessment of the proposed higher cap you can make a written submission to us via localgovernment@esc.vic.gov.au. The submission must be made within 30 days of us publishing the higher cap application. We will publish the submission closing date on our website.

If your council has applied for a higher cap or has notified us that it is considering applying for a higher cap, and you would like to receive updates, please let us know by filling in this form.

Submission policy

Submissions are voluntarily provided to inform the Essential Services Commission’s decisions and program of work. Submissions are generally published on our website. Please advise us when making your submission if you don’t want it published.

If you don’t want part of you submission published (because for example, it includes confidential or commercially sensitive information), you must provide two copies of your submission (one complete copy for our internal use and one copy with the information you don’t want published redacted from the document).

You may choose to provide an anonymous submission. However, we may not be able to fully consider your submission if there are matters that require clarification.

Read more about our submissions policy.

Privacy collection notice for submissions to the Essential Services Commission

The Essential Services Commission collects personal information when accepting submissions from stakeholders. This collection notice forms part of our Privacy Policy and together forms notice for collecting information under Information Privacy Principle (IPP) 1.3.

Collection and use of personal information

Personal information collected when making a submission, includes your first and last name, telephone number, email address and post code.

We collect this information so we can contact you about your submission(s). You may choose not to provide this personal information when making a submission (i.e. remain anonymous).

Disclosure of personal information

Submissions are published on our website so others can see the information we consider in making decisions. Your first and last name will be published on our website with your submission, unless you advise us otherwise. Your telephone number, email address and postal address will not be published. 

Our Privacy and Confidential Information Policy provides more information on our personal and confidential information handling practices, including how we store and secure your personal information.

For any questions about the handling of your personal information, or if you wish to make a privacy complaint, please contact us via our Privacy Officer at privacy@esc.vic.gov.au.