What ‘Local Water Done Well’ means for us

Your drinking water, wastewater and stormwater delivery services are staying in-house following a Council decision on 27 May 2025.

Under the Government’s Local Water Done Well policy, we were required to consider changes to the way water services are delivered in our district and consult with our community on two options. We have decided on option 1 (‘The One’) which is to keep these services in-house but with changes like ring-fencing our water services from the rest of council business to meet the new regulatory requirements.

Next steps

We are working on delivering a water services plan to government by 3 September 2025. This must show how our new arrangement will meet the new regulatory and investment requirements.

Our track record and preferred option

In Kāpiti we've invested a lot in our water management, security and infrastructure for our community and the environment. Find out how our water supply works.

Our council (and you, our community) own our water-related assets, which together have a value of $499 million (30 June 2024).

Because of our past and ongoing investment in our water assets, we're positioned well for the future. A 2018 Auditor-General’s report, Managing the supply of and demand for drinking water, found we're setting a good example with our future-focused approach to supplying drinking water.

Our current arrangements have served us well. For this reason, we have chosen to keep your water services in-house (option 1 ‘The One’)

Background - We consulted on two options

We looked at all scenarios, and shortlisted two options.

Option 1 ‘The One’ – Keep our water services in-house but with some changes. This was our preferred option.
Option 2 ‘The Four’ – A four council-owned water services organisation with Horowhenua, Palmerston North, and Manawatū (‘The Four’) councils. This option would require us to transfer our water assets to the new organisation of which Council would be a shareholder.

Other options we considered

Joining the Wellington region – Council decided against this option because the modelled costs to Kāpiti Coast ratepayers were more than double those of other options. Read the report in Related Links below.
Consumer Trust – A consumer trust (similar to the Electra power provider) was discounted due to the high set up and operational costs, and that it wouldn’t be eligible for the preferential borrowing rates available to councils and council-owned organisations through the Local Government Funding Agency.
Kāpiti-only council-owned organisation – This option was discounted due to the high set up and additional ongoing higher operating costs compared to operating an in-house model.
A two-council option with Horowhenua – The key benefits of a joint arrangement are economies of scale, but this option wouldn’t be large enough to offset the set-up and operational costs.

You can find more detailed information about the options we considered on Have Your Say | Local Water Done Well.

No need for a referendum

When we started the water meters discussion in 2011, our community expressed strong concern that water metering was a step towards privatisation and that Council could lose control of its water services. In recognition of this concern, we updated our standing orders at that time to say that any changes to the ownership, governance, or management of the district’s water assets or services must be backed by a 75% majority of councillors and their decision should be informed by a (non-binding) referendum of the community.

Under the in-house scenario (option 1) our water assets, liabilities and operations remain directly owned and managed by Council. Under the scenario of a joint water organisation (option 2), we would be transferring our water assets and liabilities, including water-related debt, to a council-owned organisation.

Because we have decided to keep water services in-house, we don’t need a referendum.