Central Coast Council's rates cap for 2027-28 is 4.3 per cent, up from 3.2. Almost half a point of it is a new cybersecurity line

The rate peg is, in IPART’s words, the maximum percentage by which a council may increase its general income for the year. It caps the council’s total, not your notice, and it does not limit water, wastewater or domestic waste charges. We set out why your own rates can still rise by more than the peg in August. This is what goes into next year’s number.

What the 4.3 per cent is made of

• Base cost change
• Emergency services levy lines (and dams safety, 2026-27)
• Cybersecurity, new for 2027-28
• Population factor
• Election cost deduction, taken off the 2026-27 total

The cybersecurity line

IPART added the adjustment for 2027-28 after the NSW Audit Office identified significant cybersecurity control deficiencies across local government. It is set by council group, from 0.41 per cent for metropolitan councils to 1.18 for rural ones. Central Coast carries 0.46, the metropolitan fringe rate. IPART estimates that for the metropolitan fringe group, where the average residential rate this year is $1,750, the adjustment adds about $8.10 a year to the average residential bill. That is a group average, not a Central Coast figure.

IPART’s chair, Anthony Wing, said in the release: Councils are accountable for how they use rates income to strengthen their cybersecurity capability.

Growth counts for more, though the Coast grew more slowly

The population factor tops up income for growth the rating roll has not already caught. IPART’s footnote: Population growth includes the change in estimated resident population less prison populations and less the change in supplementary valuations. Supplementary valuations are properties added to the roll during the year. On IPART’s figures Central Coast’s population change slowed from 0.83 to 0.70 per cent, but supplementary valuations fell further, from 0.64 to 0.30. More of the growth is left uncovered, so the factor doubles from 0.2 to 0.4.

Our view

The jump from 3.2 to 4.3 looks larger than the cost growth behind it. About 0.16 of the 1.1 points is not a new cost at all: it is a deduction that sat in this year’s peg and has no line in next year’s. The base cost change, which is what IPART expects wages, assets and running costs to do, rises by about 0.2 points. Almost all the rest is the cybersecurity line and the population factor.

The cybersecurity line is the one to hold the council to. It is the biggest single addition to the peg, it pays for a capability the Audit Office told councils to strengthen, and IPART has said plainly that each council answers for how it is spent. When the council’s 2027-28 budget appears, it is fair to ask what that half point is buying.

What to watch

Whether the council takes the full 4.3 per cent, which will show in its 2027-28 budget. A council wanting to go above its peg needs a special variation, and for 2027-28 councils must apply to IPART by early February 2027. Central Coast is not among the seven councils IPART lists with a special variation already approved for 2027-28.

How we did this. Every figure for Central Coast Council comes from IPART’s per-council spreadsheets for 2026-27 and 2027-28, read line by line; the component lines are IPART’s unrounded figures shown to two decimal places, and the core peg, population factor and final peg are as IPART rounds them. The state median of 4.3 per cent is ours, computed across the 128 councils in the 2027-28 file. We matched Central Coast to the metropolitan fringe group by the 0.46 per cent rate it carries, which equals IPART’s published group rate. The split of the 1.1 point rise in Our view is our arithmetic on IPART’s lines. We have not sought comment from IPART or the council, and nothing here says what the council will charge or what any individual notice will be.