A survey of 3000 people found nearly three quarters of respondents thought it fair to pay for water and electricity based on how much a household used. Photo: 123RF
A new survey shows most people think it is fair for households to pay for water based on how much they use.
The Infrastructure Commission asked 3000 people what charges they think are fair for infrastructure.
Nearly three quarters of respondents thought it was fair to pay for water (72 percent) and electricity (74 percent) based on how much a household uses.
The commission's general manager of strategy Geoff Cooper said this showed councils there was broad support for water meters.
"Pricing instruments are often looked at as being an unfair way for charging for services.
"I was interested in the results because it shows the opposite in many ways, particularly for electricity and water.
"These results suggest that usage actually might be a fair way of charging for water infrastructure."
The survey also looked at roading infrastructure, and found one in three Aucklanders think congestion charges are fair - compared to 22 percent in other parts of the country.
Cooper said while most people were still not fans, this was higher approval than cities overseas had before they introduced charges.
"These numbers are in fact higher than the numbers that we've seen for cities prior to implementing congestion charging.
"The number in Auckland, 31 percent. The number in Stockholm before congestion charging was 20 percent."
Cooper said after congestion charging was implemented in Stockholm, public approval increased to close to 70 percent.
"The reason for that was demonstration. The scheme was able to demonstrate to users that they were able to get from point A to point B in a faster period of time and more reliably."
He said these results should be encouraging for decision makers thinking about congestion charging.
"It is a policy which prior to implementation is never going to be popular, so we don't expect the numbers to be particularly high."
Cooper said the survey also looked at variations in the cost of infrastructure depending on where people live.
Over half of survey respondents still thought it was not fair for households to pay for services based on the cost of supply - paying more if it cost most to deliver to their area.
That was consistent with New Zealand's long-standing approach of accessing infrastructure being the same regardless of where people lived, Cooper said.
"This psyche is challenging for infrastructure providers, particularly when you're thinking about adaptation from climate change and reinstatement, where the costs of rebuilding things are quite high.
"The results show pretty clearly that New Zealanders are pretty uncomfortable with charging cost to serve."
The survey conducted by Kantar Public questioned 3002 New Zealanders over the age of 18 with the final sample weighted to be representative of age, gender, ethnicity and region. The margin of error was plus or minus 1.8 percent.