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Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

Structural arrangements for providing water services - Responsibility for providing water services - Contracting for providing water services

22: Contracts for providing water services

You could also call this:

"Agreements to help provide water services to your community"

Illustration for Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

When you think about water services, you might wonder how they are provided. A water service provider can enter into a contract with someone else to do some of the work for them. You need to know that even if a water service provider contracts out some of the work, they are still responsible for the water service. They also get to keep control over important things like making policies and deciding prices.

If a water service provider enters into a contract, it can't be for more than 50 years. There are some exceptions to this rule, like if the contract is between two water service providers. You should look at the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act 2020 to see what actions a water service provider can agree to under that law. Just because a water service provider agrees to do something under that law, it doesn't mean the contract is automatically allowed under this section.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1004302.

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"No private companies can run water services for a fee in New Zealand."

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23: Obligations before entering into contracts, or

"Things to do before agreeing to a water services contract"

Part 2Structural arrangements for providing water services
Responsibility for providing water services: Contracting for providing water services

22Contracts for providing water services

  1. A water service provider may enter into a contract with a person or body for the performance of any aspect of providing a water service on behalf of the water service provider.

  2. A water service provider that enters into a contract under this section—

  3. continues to be the water service provider responsible for the water service to which the contract relates; and
    1. retains control over—
      1. the development of policy for providing the relevant water service; and
        1. the pricing of the relevant water service.

        2. A contract entered into under this section must be for a term no longer than 50 years.

        3. Subsections (2) and (3) do not apply if the contract is between the water service provider and another water service provider, unless the parties state otherwise in the contract.

        4. A contract entered into by a water service provider is not a contract permitted by this section merely because the water service provider agrees to any 1 or more of the following actions under the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act 2020:

        5. to propose the use of a levy to support constructing eligible infrastructure:
          1. to carry out any aspect of administering a levy:
            1. the vesting of eligible infrastructure:
              1. to contribute to the construction costs of the eligible infrastructure.

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