FAQs

Local Water Done Well introduces a new regulatory regime for water services delivery. There will be new rules for investment, borrowing and pricing and new options for how we deliver water services. This new environment requires councils to prepare a water services delivery plan by 2 September 2025 to demonstrate how water services delivery (drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services) will meet new water quality and infrastructure standards, support growth and urban development and be financially sustainable by June 2028. 

Councils are free to make their own decisions.  The Wairarapa & Tararua Councils have agreed that certain key decisions must be made within a timeline that allows each Council to meet the new legislative requirements.  If required, the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) advises that councils can request that a Crown Facilitator be appointed to assist with the identification and development of solutions that address financial sustainability or affordability issues. This could include working with a group of councils to facilitate or negotiate a joint Plan if those councils would benefit from someone external to help ‘broker’ and coordinate this during the water services delivery plan process.  

Financial sustainability means water services revenue is sufficient to meet the costs of delivering water services. The costs of delivering water services include meeting all regulatory standards, and long-term investment in water services. How councils approach achieving financial sustainability can be different depending on local circumstances and require councils to consider the balance between three key factors. 

These factors are: 

- Revenue sufficiency – is there sufficient revenue to cover the costs (including servicing debt) of water services delivery? 

- Investment sufficiency – is the projected level of investment sufficient to meet levels of service, regulatory requirements and provide for growth? 

- Financing sufficiency – are funding and finance arrangements sufficient to meet investment requirements? Further information about financial sustainability is available in the Guidance for preparing water services delivery plans. 

There are many ways that ratepayers and industrial users are currently being charged for water services. For the purposes of this consultation to compare options, we have pulled together the total revenue requirements and divided this by the number of connections for each option to reflect a projected annual charge for an average connected consumer receiving access to all water services (drinking water, wastewater and stormwater management) under a consistent set of assumptions.

The Local Government (Water Services) Bill, likely to become legislation by mid-2025 contemplates green water services infrastructure within the context of stormwater service (page 140). Green water services infrastructure means a natural, semi-natural or engineered area, feature or process that mimics natural areas, features, or processes that are planned or managed to provide water services (Part 1 Preliminary provisions, s4 Interpretation).   

Further work will be done on stormwater services, including water races, within the preparation of the water services delivery plan in September 2025.  

The status quo and joint WSCCO options have been modelled from each councils Long-Term Plans.  The South Wairarapa model is based on a draft unaudited Long-Term Plan.  All capital works, including those from years 9 to 20, are based on Council Infrastructure Strategies and underlying asset management plans.  

Both options assume additional regulatory charges will take effect from 1 July 2025 for the two new regulators being Water Services Agency - Taumata Arowai and the Commerce Commission.  These additional regulatory costs will impact future water services charges regardless of which option council decides. 

The joint WSCCO option includes $5m estimate for establishment, and a further $2.8m operational cost, compared to the existing approach option.   

Model outputs consolidate water services connections for household and commercial users, as well as aggregating average water charges for each council, to improve readability and comparisons.  The average water services charges shown in this Consultation Document should not be taken as predicted future household water services charges. 

National Infrastructure Funding and Financing (NIFF) and the Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) have provided input and oversight throughout the development of the financial model.  Early versions of the existing services model and joint WSCCO models have also been reviewed by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) and found to be consistent with the LWDW legislation.  The final version of the model is materially consistent with the earlier versions reviewed by DIA. 

The CCO will combine all council debt and borrow for required investments.  The cost of servicing and paying back this will be part of the water charges paid by those connected to the water services and no longer be part of the calculation for rates by the shareholder council. 

Elected members will decide on the future of water services delivery after the consultation process is completed.  Once the decision is made the preferred option will be incorporated into the water services delivery plan as the proposed delivery model.  The WSDP must be submitted to the Secretary for Local Government by 3 September 2025 and if accepted by the Secretary, the new entity will be established.  In our modelling we have assumed a start date for any new entity of 1 July 2026. An Establishment Plan has not yet been developed as this must come after the consultation process and decision on the preferred option.