Tai Tokerau councils tell $1.4b Northland Waters: Put affordability first

Northland's three district councils are directing the region's new $1.4 billion water provider to put affordability at the centre of its decision-making.

This directive by Far North, Kaipara, and Whangārei district councils highlights concern about the balance between the cost of upgrading water infrastructure and what households can afford to pay.

The directive comes amid a major infrastructure challenge, with more than $1 billion of capital investment planned for Northland's ageing and long underinvested drinking water and wastewater infrastructure over the next decade.

Water charges are forecast to rise about 33.5% over the same timeframe.

Northland Waters, the region's new water provider, will take over $1.4 billion in water assets currently operated separately by the Far North, Kaipara and Whangārei councils under the Government's water change programme.

The full handover is scheduled for July 1 2027.

The company will serve more than 120,000 customers and manage more than a dozen Northland public drinking water supplies and almost 30 wastewater treatment plants and schemes across the region, serving about 44,000 drinking water connections.

Northlanders' average annual water charges are forecast to rise from $2852 in 2024/25 to $3807 in 2033/34, while projected borrowings are expected to exceed $459 million.

The three Northland councils, as shareholders of the new council-owned organisation, have jointly developed a 20-page Northland Waters statement of expectations through their shareholder representative group.

The statement of expectations sets out the strategic priorities shareholder councils want the new regional water entity to follow and will go to Whangārei District Council's October 22 meeting for final adoption.

It directs the entity to treat affordability as a key consideration and to be transparent about trade-offs between affordability, resilience, service levels and infrastructure investment. It also covershow councils want it to deal with customer service, relationships with hapū and iwi, and reporting and accountability.

Tai Tokerau councils are also asking Northland Waters to maintain transparency over financial and operational performance at a district level, support councils' growth priorities, avoid unreasonable delays to planned investment and maintain service levels for communities across the region.

Among the longer-term expectations, the councils want the entity to investigate options for harmonising water charges across Tai Tokerau within three-and-a-half years, butdoes not predetermine outcomes.

In the lead-up to getting on board with Northland Waters, Kaipara Mayor Jonathan Larsen publicly identified water charging harmonisation as a major plus for Kaipara, highlighting the wider debate over how costs may ultimately be shared across the region.

Whangārei, Far North and Kaipara districts entered the new arrangement with differing infrastructure assets, growth pressures, debt levels and charging arrangements, raising broader questions about how water service costs should be shared across the region.

The statement of expectations also seeks to preserve local accountability within the new regional structure.

All three district councils want district-level financial and operational reporting to remain available and have signalled that regionalisation should not lead to reduced service levels, obscure local performance, or cause unreasonable delays to planned infrastructure investment.

The statement publicly signals shareholder councils' expectations around affordability, accountability, investment and transparency before the new entity becomes fully established.

The governance document takes a largely consistent approach to Māori engagement in both the Whangārei and Far North service areas. In both districts, Northland Waters is expected to build and maintain effective relationships with hapū and iwi, meet Treaty settlement and statutory obligations, honour existing council commitments to Māori, and take account of mātauranga Māori and local knowledge in its planning and decision-making. No equivalent Kaipara-specific section appears in the document.