Published 1/02/2024
Wellington Water's response to Wellington City Council’s proposed increase on LTP 2024 to 34
Wellington Water welcomes the news that Wellington City Council has proposed to increase investment in their upcoming Long-Term Plan. We appreciate any funding our councils can provide the region’s water services and infrastructure. We acknowledge that they have to make some hard decisions to strike a balance between investment in water services and other council priorities. Our role is to provide our owner councils with best practice advice on their water assets. Any decisions on investment sits with our councils. They set the budgets, and we work to those budgets.
We are working closely with Wellington City Council to identify and prioritise which major projects and renewals are included in the proposed $1.1B capital funding and how this will be phased throughout the 10 years this Long-Term Plan covers. We are also working with council to confirm what operational funding has been proposed to cover activities such as finding and fixing leaks.
Our total recommended investment was $2.5B over 10 years, made up of capital investment of $1.75B and operational investment of $714M. This recommendation included replacement of critical infrastructure, reducing the amount of water lost through leaks, and improving the health of the harbour. Our track record in delivering projects in the region shows we have the capability to deliver the additional projects the increase of funding will allow. We have delivered consistent year-on-year capital growth of 30%, from $67m in FY 2018/19 to $261m in FY 2022/23. We have projects ready to be delivered, once council has approved their investment levels.
Wellington City Council’s proposed capital funding presents a significant increase and is a big step forward addressing the city’s water infrastructure challenges. We remain committed to working with Wellington City Council to prioritise what will be delivered and ensure efficient use of ratepayer funds. Once final funding decisions have been made by Wellington City Council, we look forward to delivering for Wellington.
Editor notes
Wellington Water is owned and fully funded by Wellington City Council, Hutt City Council, Porirua City Council, and Upper Hutt City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council and South Wairarapa District Council. All six councils are equal shareholders.
Our councils own the water infrastructure in the region, and they task us to manage the infrastructure and deliver water services to our communities.
Wellington Water is governed by a Board of Directors. The Board and our organisation receive overall leadership and direction from the Wellington Water Committee, which are also responsible for appointing members to the Board.
The Wellington Water Committee is made up of representatives from our council owners and mana whenua.