Rates & fees
Rates are the main way residents fund the council. Each year an independent regulator (IPART) sets a 'rate peg' — the maximum percentage the council can lift its total rates income. Here's the current figure, how it compares across NSW, and the things that actually change your bill.
New to these terms? Read them in plain English
- Rate peg
- The cap on how much a council's TOTAL rates income can rise this year.
- Core peg
- The rate peg before the population top-up — the part driven by rising costs.
- Population factor
- An extra slice of the rate peg for fast-growing councils.
- Special Rate Variation (SRV)
- Permission for a council to raise rates by more than the peg.
- Land valuation
- Your land's value, set by the state, used to split the rates bill between properties.
- Pensioner rebate
- A discount on rates for eligible pensioners.
- Domestic waste charge
- A separate annual fee for your bins — NOT part of the rate peg.
- IPART
- Sets the rate peg and reviews council pricing.
- 4.1%Set by IPART — a core peg of 3.6% plus a population factor. It caps the council's total rates income, not your individual bill.
- 3.1%IPART's rate peg for Lithgow for 2026–27 — a core peg of 3.0% plus a small population factor.
- Special rate variation (2023–24)
- Permanent 45.70% increase to total rates income approvedIn 2023–24 IPART approved a permanent one-year special variation lifting Lithgow's general rates income by 45.70% (including that year's 3.70% peg), kept permanently in the rate base. The impact varied by category — residential up 27.5%, business up 53.7%, farmland up 27.5%, mining up 134.7%. This is now built into the base the annual peg is applied to.
- What the peg caps
- Total rates income — not your billIt doesn't cap the domestic waste charge, which is separate.
- Why your bill can still change more (or less)
- Land revaluations shift bills between propertiesYour share moves with your land value relative to other properties (NSW Valuer General).
- Overdue interest (2025–26)
- 10.5% per annumA NSW-wide statutory maximum set annually by the state government under the Local Government Act, applied by every council to overdue rates instalments.
- Concessions
- Eligible pensioners can receive a rebateCheck eligibility with the council.
The rate peg limits the council's total rates income, not each household's bill. Lithgow's rate base was lifted by a permanent special variation from 2023–24; the annual peg then applies on top of that base. How your individual rates change depends mostly on how your land value moved relative to other properties at the latest revaluation.
Sources — check it yourself
Figures are current as at the dates shown and may change — always confirm with the linked source. See the notice at the bottom of the page for full details and how to report a correction.