Local Water Done Well
What is Local Water Done Well?
Local Water Done Well (LWDW) is the coalition government's approach to improving the management of drinking water, wastewater, and storm water (the "three waters") services replacing Labour’s previous "Affordable Water" model (sometimes called “Three Waters”).
It is intended to ensure people pay cost-reflective prices for water services, that those services are delivered to an acceptable quality, and that water services providers are investing sufficiently in three-waters infrastructure.
The changes under LWDW will affect how water services are delivered, maintained, and regulated with councils needing to make important decisions about their water infrastructure, service models, and whether to partner with other councils.
What needs to happen?
LWDW is being implemented in three key legislative stages. The latest piece of legislation, the Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Act, was enacted in September 2024.
This Act requires councils to develop a Water Services Delivery Plan (WSDP) by September 2025 that must outline how water services will be managed, meet new regulatory standards, and be financially sustainable. The WSDP can be developed either alone or jointly with other councils.
The WSDP needs to cover a minimum ten-year timeframe (but can be up to 30-years) with detailed information provided on the first three-years.
The aim of the WSDP is to serve as the primary planning and decision-making tool around the delivery of water services both now and in the future while ensuring compliance with future health, environmental, and economic regulations.
A key part of developing a WSDP is that we need to consult on options for a Water Services Delivery Model for providing water services.
Choice of Water Services Delivery Model
Council is currently considering the five available options for providing water services under the LWDW model being:
- In-house business unit (our current delivery model)
- Single council-owned council-controlled organisation (CCO)
- A council-controlled organisation (CCO) owned by the council and one or more of our neighbours.
- Mixed council / consumer trust – a consumer trust established as the majority shareholder with one or more councils owning a minority of shares
- Consumer trust – council assets would transfer to a consumer-trust owned organisation.
Council has been working to understand if it is better for our water users for us to continue to go it alone or go with our neighbouring councils on a potential regional CCO delivery model.
Key decision: We have to make a choice in principle before the end of the year about if we will submit a Water Services Delivery Plan (WSDP) independently or with our neighbours.
Community involvement
We are required to undertake community consultation on our Water Services Delivery Model options. Due to the tight timeframes this will be in early 2025 (February-March).
While we are considering the pros and cons of all the above options when we consult in early 2025 we are likely to consult on only two delivery options. At this stage these are likely to be:
- The status-quo (our current delivery model as per our Long-Term Plan) and,
- An alternative which is probably a council-controlled organisation (CCO) owned by the council and one or more other councils.
Legislative stages
LWDW is being implemented through three key legislative stages being:
- Stage 1: Repeal of Previous Water Services Legislation - completed February 2024
- Stage 2: Establish Framework & Preliminary Arrangements for New Water Entities - Enacted: 2 September 2024
- Stage 3: Establish Enduring Settings - Expected: December 2024 – Mid 2025
Click here for more detail on the legislative process.
Timeline
FAQs
Click here for FAQ's on key LWDW issues.
Please note that due to the tight timeframe there are a number of unanswered questions. These will be resolved as we work through the process. The FAQ's will be updated as more details are known and decisions made.