Councils are better placed to deliver the Government’s Three Waters outcomes than a mega-entity model, new research shows.

Analysis commissioned by Communities 4 Local Democracy He hapori mō te Manapori (C4LD) has concluded that both the council-owned with stronger regulation and a new Council Owned Enterprise (COE) model would perform better than the government’s proposal.

C4LD is a local government action group with 27 member councils throughout Aotearoa representing more than a 1.3 million New Zealanders.

The group is committed to working with central government to ensure all New Zealanders have safe and environmentally sound three waters systems. The group is also committed to ensuring that all local communities continue to have a say on the use of assets purchased on their behalf using ratepayer funds.

Ashburton District Mayor Neil Brown said there was still an opportunity for central government to work with local government to create lasting change and deliver a model that everyone could support.

“We are not against change, but we strongly oppose Government forcing through massive reforms that are based on questionable evidence and analysis.”

He said members of Communities 4 Local Democracy, and most of local government, agreed change was needed, but change that didn’t take away property rights and the community’s right to have its say.

“The alternative approaches we’ve developed are based on models that we believe can achieve broad support, and that deliver a better outcome for our communities compared to the government’s oversimplified ‘one size fits none’ model.

“We believe local government can work with its neighbours – with the support of central government – to transform three waters delivery for the better and in a way that all our communities can agree.”

Mayor Brown said councils were experts in local service delivery and wanted to drive that change, rather than have unsuitable solutions forced on them.

Analysis by global infrastructure advising firm Castalia shows the Council-owned with regulation and council-owned enterprise models of delivery achieve better outcomes on accountability, Iwi-Maōri partnership, incentives of management and governance, access to financing, scale and scope efficiencies and flexibility for the future.