What will change for Wellington when Tiaki Wai takes over the delivery of water

Homeowners in the Wellington region, Rotorua, Central Otago, Gore, and Clutha, will soon pay their rates and water bills differently.

While they will still get quarterly rates bills, from 1 July, they will also get quarterly water bills - for tap, sewage, and storm services - separately.

Other councils, such as Christchurch, will keep their water charges within their usual rates bills, with the July launch of the government's Local Water Done Well system.

In the Wellington region, council-owned entity Tiaki Wai will take over the delivery of water in Wellington City, Upper and Lower Hutt, and Porirua. For the first year, the average water charge for households is estimated to be $2377 per year - an increase of $277.

It will inherit $9 billion in water assets as well as $1.7 billion in existing debt.

Tiaki Wai's board chairperson Will Peet told Nine to Noon that the separate water bill will come at the same time as the rates bill.

"So if you have a bill that you get on email, you'll get an email from us and an email from your council. If you get a letter, you will get two letters at the same time, obviously subject to any vagaries with New Zealand Post, but they are a quarterly bill, unless of course you've got an existing arrangement - like you pay monthly, or you pay installments, and so on."

Peet said the bill "essentially has the water component that was in rates the previous year carved out".

He added that the payment will also be different.

"That's part of what we're communicating about, and raising the awareness around, Tiaki Wai is that you will need to change your direct debit if that's how you pay, but if you pay through, like, a bank transfer, you'll just do it to a new bank account.

"We'll be communicating that over the next couple of months."

Around half of the homeowners in the Wellington region paid their rates bill through a direct debit, Peet said.

Peet said Tiaki Wai had not made a final decision on what role water metres would play, as it could take several years to roll them out.

"It's a big rollout, there's 155,000 houses in Wellington, or, you know, residences, and very few of them currently have a water meter.

"So unlike other parts in the country, where they might be swapping out a water metre, ours is a whole process starting from scratch."

He said it was a myth that there would be a large bill for the installation of the metre.

"Nobody is getting a bill for $4000 for a water metre. Any cost of water metres will be spread out over years."

However, he added that Tiaki Wai was still at the business case stage - and if the cost of the metres outweighed the benefit of having them, then they may not go ahead.

"We'll be out communicating with everybody about what our plan to do is."

Peet said there was a lot of work for Tiaki Wai to determine what each resident and business should pay.

"There are very different charging mechanisms across the cities," he said.

"We all share a drinking water network, and Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt share a wastewater treatment plant, Johnsonville and Tawa, who are part of Wellington City, their wastewater goes to Porirua - not to Moa Point.

"We've got a pretty integrated network, yet people are charged well differently for it."

Peet added those changes would be done gradually.

The first separate quarterly rates and water bill was expected in August or September.