Councils pool water management

Whangarei, Kaipara and Far North District Councils will establish a Northland-wide Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) to deliver drinking water and wastewater services from July 2027.

The recommendation was made by the Northland Local Water Done Well Working Group, which comprises elected members and advisor David Hawkins, and is supported by staff from each council.

Whangarei general manager for waters Andrew Carvell says the new CCO will help ensure all of Northland can meet the increased compliance requirements under Local Water Done Well and address growth across the region. He says this will be achieved while ensuring charges are fair for the residents and ratepayers of each district.

“Advantages of the CCO include cost efficiencies through shared resources, reduced duplication and economies of scale over time, improved borrowing capacity, enhanced resilience through a larger, shared workforce, improved ability to deliver large-scale capital programmes and respond to legislative changes, as well as a commercially focused board and management team,” Carvell says.

A major focus for the Working Group was to determine a financial model that recognises the different starting points of each council in terms of water assets, debt levels and infrastructure investment needs.

“Councils have agreed to a model that will see financials ring-fenced for each district and have non-harmonised water charges to start with, meaning water charges are different for residents in each district.”

It is expected that during its first three years, the CCO will be able to identify and prioritise some of the critical issues each district is facing and then be in a position to review its approach to finances and water charges.

“There are still many details to work through, but we are exploring further measures to ensure the CCO will be equally beneficial for each district, and set the right path towards harmonised water charges.

“Stormwater assets will remain with each council in terms of decision making and costs, but a shared service arrangement could be made with the CCO for operations”

The next step will be to prepare a water services delivery plan, which must be submitted to Central Government by September 3.