The five councils who are shareholders in Tiaki Wai today confirmed their commitment to transferring assets and debt and providing callable capital to the new water organisation. 

All five councils have now formally agreed to transfer assets worth a total of around $9 billion and about $1.6 billion of debt to Tiaki Wai from 1 July.  

The Partners’ Committee – five shareholding council representatives and two Mana Whenua representatives – met today and reaffirmed its support for Tiaki Wai.  

Partners’ Committee Independent Chair Dame Kerry Prendergast says “there are still some details that will continue to be finalised after Tiaki Wai starts operating, but all the pieces are now in place.”  

“We welcome the work the Board is doing to set a path that will deliver better water services for all the people who ultimately own and rely on those services.”  

While Tiaki Wai will be progressively strengthening its financial position, the five councils have committed to provide up to $400 million of callable capital as a last resort if there is an unexpected, significant adverse event.  

“This could be major infrastructure failure that is beyond Tiaki Wai’s financial ability to manage through normal operating and funding measures,” said Dame Kerry.   

“This takes the pressure off Tiaki Wai to manage its path to financial sustainability without needing to increase water charges significantly more to achieve this.” 

For more information contact: 

communications@poriruacity.govt.nz 

Background:  

Uncalled capital arrangement  

The draft Water Services Strategy identified that Tiaki Wai will initially operate outside the long-term financial covenants required by the New Zealand Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA). While Tiaki Wai is expected to progressively strengthen its financial position over time, in the interim Tiaki Wai will have limited financial flexibility to respond to financial shocks, particularly given it is inheriting aging infrastructure networks at significant risk of failure, and the scale of required investment.   

To manage that risk until Tiaki Wai is in a stable financial position, shareholding councils have worked with the Tiaki Wai Board to develop the uncalled capital arrangement.   

Should this be called on, the provision of the called-on capital will be shared across councils in an agreed formula.   

This is not working capital and can only be drawn down as a last resort where all other reasonable funding avenues have been exhausted.   

The proposed ‘uncalled capital arrangement’ will be in place for up to 10 years, by which time Tiaki Wai is expected to be able to manage through normal operating and funding measures.   

A “thank you” to Tiaki Wai for sending this article to The Upper Hutt Connection.

29/05/26