VA fees have risen sharply this year, in some municipalities by as much as 20 percent, and the average in the country ends up with an increase of 3.8 percent. It shows a report from the interest group Nils Holgersson Group.
– We have an accumulated deficit in the business, so we need to raise tariffs just to cover our running costs, so to speak. We also need to raise the tariff to a level where we can afford to make the maintenance efforts required, says Robert Hansson, VA manager at Vakin, who handles VA maintenance in Vindeln municipality.
Large investments on the VA network means that the fees will be increased in Sweden in the coming years. This spring, for example, the industry organization Swedish Water came out with a report that showed that VA rates need to be doubled in the next 20 years.
Already this year, costs have increased at a much higher rate than inflation, according to a report by the interest group Nils Holgersson Group, which among other things examines fees for households in Sweden. On average, fees have risen by 3.8 percent since January.
At the same time, the fees differ around the country.
– There is a very big difference between different municipalities. The most expensive municipality has a VA cost of almost five times as much as the cheapest. We understand that there is a need for investment in some municipalities, at the same time this very big difference is difficult to understand, says Hans Dahlin, chairman of the Nils Holgersson group.
The municipality that raised the most this year is Pajala, where the fee has been raised by almost 30 percent. Alingsås and Sala have increased the fees by more than 20 percent, and the municipality of Vindeln has increased its VA fee by 19 percent this year, despite the fact that they are already above the national average.
Despite this, the municipality expects that the tariffs will need to be raised further.
– We have not raised the rate in Vindeln for many years before we made this increase. We have a regular consumer price index, it is clear that it will be more expensive to buy services and materials. We will propose to the board to raise the tariff next year as well, says VA manager Robert Hansson.
Also Sala municipality, which this year has raised the VA rate by 21 percent, plans to raise the rate further.
– Sala municipality has an ambition to grow and to be able to do that we need to invest in the VA system. We will need to upgrade and expand our treatment plant and we will need to work with our water supply. This will lead to higher tariffs, says Åsa Kling, unit manager at the Community Builders’ Office in Sala municipality.
That some municipalities raises by so much at once, thinks Hans Dahlin, chairman of the Nils Holgersson group, is problematic.
– You need to get away from this jerkiness in price development, where you increase by so much from one year to another, he says.
Åsa Kling in Sala municipality agrees that this is not desirable.
– It is difficult with tariffs and it is important to score correctly. If you do not do that, it will easily be such fluctuations as we have had, but the goal is of course that you should set a budget and then end up on a par with it every year, she says.
Source: ICELAND NEWS