New Water Service Delivery Models Provide Certainty For Communities

Infrastructure New Zealand has welcomed the certainty provided by the Government’s reveal of new water service delivery models for Local Water Done Well.

“The ability for new Local Government owned water entities to immediately borrow more through the Local Government Funding Agency will start the long road towards improving the condition of our water assets,” says Infrastructure New Zealand Policy Director Michelle McCormick. “These assets are largely hidden but vital to our lives, and the increased borrowing provisions will allow critical investment to improve our environment and provide safe and reliable community water services.”

The move to increase funding from the Local Authority Funding Agency directly to the new water entities is warmly welcomed, along with consideration of more generous debt limits for high growth councils.

“The status quo, where most councils are struggling to adequately fund water infrastructure, is no longer an option. Providing significantly more debt headroom and the ability to pay that back over the lifetime of new assets will ensure that community-owned water infrastructure will get the investment it needs.”

“Existing and future environmental and economic regulation mean that rules are going to be tougher around better asset information, demonstrating compliance and increased investment. All of this is within a monitored pricing regime that will mean big changes for the sector and provide assurance to New Zealanders over their water bills and the condition of the assets they continue to own,” says McCormick.

As well as these new funding measures, Infrastructure New Zealand also strongly advocates for the increased use of metering and usage charging to provide a direct long-term revenue stream for our water services.

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