$3200 water bill for average Christchurch household in 2033

Thursday, 21 August 2025

The average Christchurch home will pay $3200 a year for water services in 2033 under a $3.7b plan approved by city councillors on Wednesday.

The plan will see $2.4 billion invested in water services over the next nine years with an additional $1.3b on operational costs. The expenditure will be funded via rates and financing.

It was approved on the day Local Government Minister Simon Watts refused to say whether the government’s water reforms would produce lower costs for households than Labour’s Three Waters reform, despite making this claim when campaigning against the policy in 2023.

“I can categorically say that the councils, as a result of our reforms, will be financially sustainable, and that is a significant and positive step forward for all councils and for New Zealanders as a result of this reform,” Watts said.

In Christchurch, Cr Yani Johanson said New Zealand’s water reforms were a good example of governments creating inefficient layers of bureaucratic red tape.

“Hopefully, if there is a move to slash red tape, the whole water reforms can be held up as an example of what not to do,” Johanson said at the council meeting on Wednesday.

Christchurch’s Water Services Delivery Plan is the culmination of more than four years of Government-enforced reform, aimed at ensuring safe, reliable and financially sustainable water services across the country.

However, Christchurch City Council has maintained all along, it was largely doing this anyway.

Cr Sam MacDonald said the council’s water plan demonstrated what the council knew all along - that it could run its own water infrastructure.

“This is fantastic in terms of us validating what we have all been saying for so long which is we know how to manage our water.”

The former Labour Government wanted to transfer control of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure from councils to four new independent entities.

The move was widely unpopular across the country and some mayors joined together to come up with their own plan.

Once elected, the National Government came up with its own plan allowing councils to choose from six different models.

After consultation, Christchurch city decided to continue delivering its water services inhouse. The model is essentially the status quo, with some tweaks to ensure water revenue is only used for water services.

The 115-page Water Services Delivery Plan shows Christchurch residents can expect to end up paying an additional $905 for water services by 2033-34. This year the average charge per connection was $2296 and it was expected to steadily increase to $3201 in nine years’ time.

Johanson criticised central Government’s approach.

“Here is a really good example of Government’s creating inefficient, more bureaucratic layers of local democracy that mean we end up spending a whole bunch of money and doing a whole bunch of work, taking away from actually doing things that make a difference in communities just to satisfy the political whim of central Government.”

Johanson said he looked forward to the day when the Government announced the latest exemption process so the council could remove chlorine from the city’s water supply.

Cr Sara Templeton said for years councils across the country had not done the work they needed to have done on their water networks.

The water safety plans will mean councils will be held to account regarding improving water infrastructure, she said.