Infrastructure
growth
charge
An Auckland Council Organisation
Preparing for our future
As the Auckland region grows, so does the demand for our
water and wastewater services. It is estimated that over the
next 20 years demand will grow by around 20 per cent, putting
huge pressure on our water and wastewater infrastructure.
To ensure that we continue to invest in our infrastructure and
accommodate the region’s growth, an infrastructure growth
charge (IGC) is applied to all new water and wastewater network
connections and to existing non-domestic properties that
increase demand on our water and wastewater networks. The
IGC removes the financial burden from existing customers, and
means that the necessary upgrade costs are applied to the
developments that increase demand on the system.
What is an infrastructure growth charge?
An IGC is a fee applied to all new developments connecting
to Watercare’s networks, or to existing non-domestic
customers that increase demand for water and wastewater.
All property owners or developers applying for new
connections to the network are liable for this charge.
This also includes increasing the size of a water meter or
service connection to cater for increased demand from a
development, or if you are changing the use or extending
the use of a non-domestic property.
The IGC is a recovery of capital investment costs only.
Operating costs associated with new infrastructure are
funded from water and wastewater consumption charges.
An IGC does not apply to developments where a development
contribution to fund water/wastewater infrastructure has
been paid to the Auckland Council (or one of the councils
prior to 1 November 2010) for the same purpose, unless the
scale or intensity of the development has increased since the
original development contribution was required (refer Local
Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Act 2010,
section 56).
Infrastructure growth charges versus development
contributions
IGC (charged by Watercare)
Development contribution
(charged by Auckland Council)
Contractual charge under our
customer contract
Charged under the Local Government
Act 2002
Applied to all new developments and
existing non-domestic connections
where there is an increased demand
for water and/or wastewater services
Applied to new developments, excluding
the Crown
Charged at service connection
approval for new connections; or
when non-domestic properties
increase their demand for water and/
or wastewater services
Generally charged at the first of either:
• resource consent
• building consent, or
• service connection
Calculating your infrastructure growth charge
Watercare will calculate the IGC applicable to each applicant
based on water demand information, as follows:
Domestic
• Based on a single domestic unit with water consumption of
up to 600 litres per day.
• Levied for each new domestic unit – includes minor
household units, extensions without internal access to
the main dwelling, and sleep outs with bathroom/toilet
facilities.*
• Levied if you request the installation of a larger water meter,
unless this is associated with a fire sprinkler system.
* Where the floor areas of the minor household unit, or sleep out, is less than 65m2 then the IGC is reduced to 2/3 of the domestic rate.
Non-domestic
• Based on the number of household unit equivalents (HUE)
with water demand of 600 litres per day. For example, where
the water demand is calculated to be 6,000 litres per day,
the IGC will be ten HUE.
• For non-domestic properties which are increasing their
demand for water and/or wastewater connections, the
existing HUE will be deducted from the proposed HUE to
determine the IGC.
• The minimum IGC is one HUE.
• Multiple HUEs will be rounded to the nearest whole number.
If you don’t know how much water your non-domestic
development will use and there is no water demand
information available, Watercare will assess your IGC by
comparing it with similar developments, e.g:
1. For a commercial/business development the number of HUE
is calculated by dividing the number of employees by 12.
2. For a shopping complex the number of HUE is calculated by
dividing the total floor area by 300.
3. For a large warehouse the HUE is the average of the
calculation based on the number of employees and
the calculation based on the floor area (examples 1
and 2 above).
Other examples of non-domestic infrastructure growth charges
Type of development
Equivalent domestic units
School
Occupancy/30
e.g. school with 40 staff and 1,200 pupils
(40+1,200)/30 = 41
Childcare centre
Occupancy/24
e.g. daycare with 6 staff and 44 children
(6+44)/24 = 2
Hospital/medical centre
The number of hospital beds, or treatment bays
for a medical centre.
Rest home
The number of rest home units.
Hotel/motel
The total of:
number of units with kitchenette and bathroom
facilities
+
number of rooms with only bathroom facilities/2
+
number of rooms with no facilities/3
Hostel
Total design occupancy/3
Infrastructure growth charge rates
The IGC rate for your area is listed at www.watercare.co.nz >
residential or business tabs > water and wastewater charges.
The rates are reviewed annually.
Auckland metropolitan area
A uniform IGC rate applies to all developments in the Auckland
metropolitan area.
Non-metropolitan areas
The IGC rate for non-metropolitan areas is based on the growth
costs for the water and/or wastewater scheme servicing the
area.
Watercare Customer Service Line
09 442 2222
An Auckland Council Organisation
27_06_15
For more information about IGCs please refer to our website,
www.watercare.co.nz.