Parliament has today passed legislation providing stronger foundations for affordable, safe and sustainable publicly owned water services for New Zealanders.

The Water Services Entities Amendment Bill changes the Water Services Entities Act 2022 to replace 4 water services entities with 10, allowing for greater community involvement in setting the direction of water entities while ensuring affordability of services for households.

“Under the reforms, households are projected to save up to $2,770–$5,400 per year by 2054 on average, depending on which region they are in,” Kieran McAnulty said.

“Moving from water services being run by 67 councils to 10 water services entities means the new entities will have the increased size required to access more funding and improve management of water services. This is how we will ultimately save Kiwi households cash.

“This Bill means New Zealanders get the benefits of the reform and communities have a say in how these services are run. I acknowledge and thank those New Zealanders, including local government and iwi who have assisted in refining these reforms.

“Importantly, the reforms remove the water-related debt off councils’ balance sheets – relieving councils of the burden of servicing this debt and the need to fund future investment in our water infrastructure. This helps limit future rates increases.

“Feedback from local government has been particularly useful in ensuring this legislation provides the certainty needed for water sector planning and employment, clarity for ongoing transition and implementation activities, and a smooth transition to the new system.”

Passage of the Water Services Legislation Bill and the Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill in the coming days will complete the legislative package for the Government’ Affordable Water Reforms.

“Every ratepayer will be economically better off because of these changes versus doing nothing, keeping more money in the pockets of families,” said Kieran McAnulty.

Note to Editors:

· This Bill will provide for 10 water services entities, instead of the current 4 entities. These entities will be more closely aligned with regional boundaries and the spatial planning boundaries proposed in the resource management reforms.

· Each territorial authority will be guaranteed representation on its entity’s regional representative group.

· The Bill includes enabling provisions for a Water Services Entities Funding Agency. This would be optional and operate similar to the Local Government Funding Agency. It would allow entities to access cost-efficient financing by pooling risk and achieve scale and market access benefits.

· The Bill will also provide entities with the option of entering into shared services arrangements with one another. It will also allow for mergers between entities if 75 percent of regional representatives from each merging entity agree.

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