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Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

Structural arrangements for providing water services - Water organisations - Governance of water organisations: consumer trusts

51: Role of trustees of consumer trusts

You could also call this:

"Trustees' job is to make good decisions for people who use water services"

Illustration for Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

The trustees of a consumer trust have to represent you and all other consumers who get water services from the water organisation the trust owns. They also have to do the jobs that shareholders do in a water organisation under this Act. This means they have to make decisions that are good for all consumers who get water services.

When the trustees make decisions, they have to think about what is best for you and all other consumers. If the trust owns the water organisation all by itself, the trustees make decisions on their own. But if the trust co-owns the water organisation with other groups, like councils or other consumer trusts, the trustees have to work together with those groups to make decisions.

The trustees of a consumer trust can only own a water organisation, and they cannot have any other type of business or organisation. This is because the trust was set up for the sole purpose of managing the water organisation, and the trustees must only make decisions that are good for the consumers who get water services from it.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1004344.

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Government and voting > Local councilsEnvironment and resources > Food and water safety
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"Councils can set up a trust to own or part-own a water company"

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Part 2Structural arrangements for providing water services
Water organisations: Governance of water organisations: consumer trusts

51Role of trustees of consumer trusts

  1. The trustees of a consumer trust must—

  2. represent the interests of all consumers who hold an account for the provision of water services with the water organisation that the trust owns or co-owns; and
    1. perform the roles and responsibilities of the shareholders in a water organisation under this Act.

      1. The trustees of a consumer trust must comply with subsection (1)—

      2. on their own, if the water organisation is wholly owned by them; or
        1. in conjunction with the other co-owners of the water organisation, if the trustees co-own the water organisation with—
          1. 1 or more territorial authorities; or
            1. the trustees of 1 or more other consumer trusts.

            2. A consumer trust exists for the sole purpose for which it is established, and its trustees must not have an ownership interest, in their role as trustees of the consumer trust, in any type of organisation other than a water organisation.