As part of the city council’s Annual Plan, which will be signed off today, it is proposing an excess water charge.
It would see households exceeding their allocated water supply, which is determined by the rateable value of the property, charged for additional use.
Under this system, the threshold for exceeding water allocations is higher for higher valued properties and lower for lesser valued properties.
For example, a home with a value of $500,000 will have a water allocation of 800 to 900-litres per day, whereas a $1 million dollar home would be entitled to 1700-litres.
McLellan said an amendment he will be raising at today’s meeting would ensure there is a “uniform” threshold which is the same for every household, if approved by the city council.
"At the moment everybody in Christchurch is not allocated the exact same amount of water, rich people get allocated more.
"Now that we are going to start charging for it [water], under this approach, it will be those with the least amount allocated that will be paying first,” he said.
Under the city council’s scheme, households would be charged about $1 per 1000 litres above their allocation.
Households which use more than 333,000-litres per year (915-litres per day) would also be charged.
The city council estimates the proposed charges would initially affect about 20,000 households and bring in an additional $2 million in revenue in the first year.
