Councils' consideration of water meters makes surcharges 'less of a reality'

Greater Wellington Regional Council's chairperson says "it's less of a reality" it will implement water surcharges on councils due to them indicating plans to implement water meters.

In December Daran Ponter wrote to the Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt, Porirua and Wellington mayors and asked them to be clear on what their plans were to include water meters in their 2024-2034 Long Term Plans (their budget for the next 10 years).

The letter also stated that the regional council would consider setting water allocation limits for the four councils and imposing surcharges for those that go over those allocations.

It would be the first time the regional council would use that power given to it under the Wellington Regional Water Board Act 1972.

All four councils have responded and said they were considering water metering.

Ponter told RNZ he was happy all the councils were looking at the water infrastructure.

"I am very positive about the responses that we received. It shows quite a shift by some councils to seriously consider water meters."

Ponter said he felt the need to write the letter due to witnessing an element of "dithering" on the issue of water meters.

"I've felt that the answers weren't coming sufficiently clearly from those councils, and we needed those answers in order to be able to consider our own position as a regional council."

He said now that councils have been clear they are considering water meters it was less likely the regional council would implement surcharges - but it was still looking at it.

"The next steps are for us as a regional council to sit down and consider the responses we got and work out whether there is any basis for a surcharge."

In Wellington mayor Tory Whanau's response, she raised concern about the implementation of a surcharge.

"I just note that any additional surcharge will impact our financial ability to manage our ageing water infrastructure and would therefore not help our shared goal of sustainable water supply and delivery."

Ponter said that was a wrong interpretation of what a surcharge might mean.

Any money generated by the surcharge would have gone into "a Wellington Water account" that would be held for a city council that went over their allocated limit to pump back into water infrastructure investment, he said.

To implement any surcharges the council would need to consult with the four city councils.