What is a Water Services Delivery Plan?

Local Water Done Well requires councils to submit Water Service Delivery Plans (WSDP) to central government in early September 2025. Through these Plans, councils will be asked to provide information about their water services operations, assets, revenue, expenditure, pricing and projected costs, as well as necessary financing arrangements. WSDPs must provide an assessment of the current condition and expected lifespan of assets and the overall network. It must include existing consents, those at risk of non-compliance, and those due to expire. Central to the WSDP is a proposal for the governance, management and operations of water services delivery. Our preferred option is to establish a joint council-controlled organisation to deliver water services.

WSDPs cover information across three key areas:

1. Council’s water services delivery financial and asset information and performance measures, pricing and other related policies, methodologies and assumptions.
2. Planned levels of investment in water services delivery, approach to operations, and whether these are sufficient to deliver the proposed level of service, meet infrastructure standards and meet regulatory standards.
3. Council’s proposed water services delivery arrangements, including proposals for any joint arrangements across more than one council.