Tim Brown: Wellington City Councillor on Wellington households facing higher water charges

There's skyrocketing water charges on the way for Wellingtonians in coming years. 

An average Wellington household's water bill tops $2500 a year.  

Indicative council figures suggest by 2033, that'll climb to $7,000 in a new billing system with water separate from other rates. 

Councillor Tim Brown says it covers stormwater, sewerage, and drinking water.

"It has approximately doubled in about the last five years - so it was closer to where Auckland's were five years ago. And it's quite hard to actually fully understand why our network is in such bad condition."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Together, Duperzy Ellen.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Eighteen past five. More water trouble in Wellington. This time
it's the price of water. Now it is estimated that
the average Wellington household will be paying an average of
fifty dollars a week for water within their rates bill
from the second half of this year. Wellington City councilor
Tim Brown is with me now hate.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Tim, Hi very well, thank you?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Is this for real? Is this really happening?

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yes, the average water charge per rate payers have been
like twenty five hundred dollars or twenty six hundred dollars.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Why is it so high?

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Well, remember that if you live at Auckland, your water
charges don't cover store border, so our water charges cover
all three you know, store water, sewerage and drinking water.
And it has approximately doubled in about the last five years.
So it's what's closer to where Auckland's were five years

(01:00):
years ago. And it's quite hard to actually fully understand
why our network is in such bad condition, but it
is obviously in that bad condition because the money. You
know that, we do know that the money is being
spent fixing lenks and such like, so you know, it's
not like the money is disappearing somewhere. It has actually

(01:20):
been spent fixing problems.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
If we did apples for apples, and you know, Auckland
has had the storm water included and blah blah blah,
and we're all paying exactly the same thing. Would you
guys be paying in Wellington about what everybody's paying? Would
it be more or would it be less.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
That I'm not too sure. I think I saw from
a media report that the average water care charge is
about one hundred dollars per month per resident, yes, or
per connection, so it's about twelve hundred dollars. I would
doubt that storm water would be the same again on
top of that, so I would suspect that Wellington is

(01:56):
probably paying something more than Auckland at the moment.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
We'll listen, good luck with it, because you guys just
have constant troubles with the stuff, don't you. That's Tim Brown,
Wellington City Councilor for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive
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