Three Waters: Government announces $2.5 billion package to support local government transition

The Government yesterday substantially increased the size of the carrot to encourage local authorities to participate, by announcing a $2.5 billion package to support local government transition through the reforms to New Zealand’s drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services.

The package was announced by the Prime Minister at the Local Government NZ conference, where she laid out the Government's commitment to, and strong case for, large scale reform of the water sector. Although receipt of the new funds is not expressly linked to each local authority participating in the reform, it is clear from the package design that participation will be required. The package consists of:

 
The proposed package aims to:

• support local government to invest in the wellbeing of their communities, so that all councils and their communities are better off;

• ensure no council will be financially worse off after reform; and

• makes clear that the Government will cover reasonable transition costs.

 
The funding package comes on top of the $761 million committed to the reform programme in 2020, and $296 million announced in Budget 2021 for the costs involved with the establishment of, and transition of, assets and liabilities to the new water entities.
 
A link to the Government's press release can be found here.

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