Wellington and Porirua councils load hefty rates rises on new water utility Tiaki Wai
Thursday, 18 June 2026
Two Wellington councils have hugely hiked the rates charged for water assets in the lead-up to handing them off to a new water entity – one by 304% in a year – but it appears the situation is down to oddities of the rating system.
When pipes and other water assets were owned by councils, the practice of charging rates on the infrastructure was a largely academic practice as councils were mostly paying themselves.
From July 1, Tiaki Wai takes possession of water assets and will start paying rates on them. Before and after, the money for water will still come from current and future households.
But with more cost being put on a debt-laden Tiaki Wai, it will mean the new entity having to charge homes more while councils can minimise the bills they send.
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Figures supplied by Tiaki Wai show Wellington City charged itself $12 million in water asset rates in the last financial year, $30.9m this year, then $31.8m from July 1 – a 165% increase over two years. Porirua City has gone up from $2.2m this year to $8.9m next year, a 304% increase.
The increased rates are understood to be based on valuations of water assets done by QV but with different councils done at different times.
Tiaki Wai’s draft water services strategy highlighted a further twist on top of rising valuations on water assets – as property values decreased, the amount of rates needing to be gathered by charging water assets increased.
“As these rates are charged to Tiaki Wai in the same way as other ratepayers, they must be recovered through water service charges to customers,” the strategy said.
Porirua City councillor Geoff Hayward this month posted on social media explaining how the increased valuation from QV managed to keep the city’s average rates increase to zero.
“The extra rates [charged to Tiaki Wai] from the assets just happened to cover the increase in costs that we were facing next year,” he said.
All other councils involved with Tiaki Wai – Upper Hutt, Hutt City and Greater Wellington – have increased water asset rates to lesser degrees.
A statement from Tiaki Wai said it “looks forward to a discussion with shareholding councils on rating differentials to ensure the allocation of rates to water infrastructure is appropriate and sustainable”.
Porirua mayor Anita Baker said the timing of her city’s QV revaluation meant the impact was reflected in the coming year’s increase while Wellington City was done a year earlier.
A Wellington City Council statement confirmed its pipes were revalued up by about 100% by QV, while property values dropped. The council did not change the differential, between rates for water assets and properties, as this would have meant bigger increases for property owners.
Tiaki Wai is being established under the Government’s Local Water Done Wellington legislation, which was intended to take water infrastructure funding and decisions away from councils which have spent decades under-investing in it.
Tiaki Wai on July 1 takes over owning the water assets but also associated debt of about $1.7 billion across the region. With it, it also takes water revenue with that part being taken out of council bills and sent out in a standalone Tiaki Wai bill.
A last-minute change saw some risk pushed back to councils as they were asked to guarantee borrowing then, in an effort to reduce early bills from Tiaki Wai, had to keep $400m borrowing capacity aside in case of a major breakdown.