Local Water Done Well
Local Water Done Well: Northland’s new water organisation
Whangarei, Kaipara and Far North district councils have agreed to establish a Northland-wide council-controlled organisation (CCO) to deliver drinking water and wastewater services from July 2027.
This change is coming as a result of the Local Water Done Well reforms, which aim to address New Zealand’s long-standing drinking, wastewater and stormwater challenges.
Under this reform, councils needed to develop water services plans that ensure regulatory requirements and quality standards can be met while being financially sustainable and supporting forecasted growth.
The reform also encourages councils to work with neighbouring districts on solutions that could benefit larger regions. The Government provided several options for how water could be delivered in future.
In Northland, district councils considered:
- an in-house business unit (our current delivery model)
- a council-controlled organisation (CCO) owned by multiple councils.
Following community consultation, Northland's district councils formed a cross-council elected members steering group to explore collaboration options.
The group includes the mayor and two elected members from each council and is chaired by Whangārei Mayor Vince Cocurullo. It is supported by council staff, the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), and an independent adviser. It will be reformed after the 2025 local elections.
After evaluating the proposed options, the group concluded that creating a Northland CCO would be the best way forward for the region.
The CCO will help ensure all of Northland can meet the increased compliance requirements under Local Water Done Well and address growth across the region, while ensuring charges are fair for the residents and ratepayers of each district.
It will provide Northland with advantages including:
- cost efficiencies through shared resources, reduced duplication and economies of scale over time
- improved borrowing capacity
- enhanced resilience through a larger, shared workforce
- improved ability to deliver large-scale capital programmes and respond to legislative changes
- a commercially focused board and management team.
A joint Water Services Delivery Plan was adopted by all three of Northland’s district councils in August 2025 and approved by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) in early October 2025. You can read this plan below.
Read the approved Joint Water Services Delivery Plan. Approval was granted in early October 2025.
Establishment of the new water services entity will be carried out in three phases:
- the scoping and preparation phase, running from now until June 2026
- the establishment and transition phase, from June 2026 to July 2027
- the go-live and operational phase, commencing in July 2027.
More information about the new two-waters Northland CCO can be found in the FAQ section below. These will be added to as details are finalised.
For more information about Local Water Done Well, visit the Department of Internal Affairs website:
Water Services Policy and Legislation (dia.govt.nz)
Frequently asked questions
Across the nation, councils are facing big challenges relating to the delivery of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services.
Local Water Done Well is a policy introduced by the coalition Government to replace the previous Government’s Three Waters reform programme and address New Zealand’s long-standing water challenges.
It empowers communities and councils to determine how their water services will be delivered in the future while meeting increased regulatory requirements and quality standards, being financially sustainable and supporting forecasted growth.
The policy also encourages councils to work with neighbouring districts on solutions that could benefit larger regions.
Councils have been investigating options for water service delivery into the future, seeking community feedback, and preparing Water Service Delivery Plans which were submitted to the Government in early September 2025.
For more information about Local Water Done Well, visit the Department of Internal Affairs website:
Water Services Policy and Legislation (dia.govt.nz)
This is yet to be confirmed, however legislation provides five options for how shares can be allocated across councils. These include:
- Population allocation: Shares are allocated based on the proportionate population of its service area and updated as these figures change over time.
- Connections allocation: Shares are allocated based on the number of water connections and updated as these figures change over time.
- Net asset allocation: Shares are allocated based on the total net value of the council’s assets transferred to the CCO at the time of establishment.
- Equal proportion allocation: Shares are allocated to each council equally.
- Combination: Shares are allocated through a combination of the methods above. For example, 50% of the shares could be allocated based on number of water connections and 50% based on net asset value.
Local Water Done Well legislation requires the appointment of a CEO and a competency-based board of directors. Board members will be selected for their expertise in areas such as strategic planning, financial management, governance, leadership, risk oversight, and water industry experience.
The board will work to ensure the CCO achieves its strategy and objectives and meets all statutory responsibilities. They do this on behalf of the CCO’s shareholders (the councils).
The CCO will have a ‘shareholder council’, including two representatives from each founding council, of which at least one will be an elected member.
The shareholder council’s role will be to represent its shareholders and hold the CCO to account via a Statement of Expectations.
Following each council’s adoption of the joint water services delivery plan, a commitment agreement was signed by each council’s Chief Executive.
This agreement included that Whangarei District Council is to be the lead council whose responsibilities include:
- managing project expenditure and tracing against the project budget
- preparing agendas and scheduling governance meetings for the project
- preparing reporting for governance meetings for the project
- entering into agreements for the benefit of the project.
Stormwater assets are expected to remain with their respective councils in terms of decision making and costs, however, a shared service arrangement could be made with the CCO for operations. This is because many critical parts of the system are shared across other services too. For example, roads drain stormwater during heavy rain, and green spaces in parks and reserves are designed to capture excess water where possible.
This proposal is limited to amalgamating drinking water and wastewater services across Northland.
Between 4 April to 4 May 2025, we sought feedback from the community on two main options:
Te pēke | The bag
represents the strengthened in-house model, where services stay with the council, tightly managed and locally controlled.
Te kete | The basket
represents the three-council water services organisation, where resources and responsibility are shared for greater efficiency and wider collaboration with Kaipara and Whangārei district councils.
We received 116 submissions, ranging from short comments to detailed, multi-page responses.
In summary 68% of respondents favoured keeping water services in-house. Those favouring an in-house model generally wanted to keep decision making local, whereas those wanting a regional Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) cited ‘economies of scale’ as their primary reason.