Price-quality path for Watercare
Watercare will be subject to a price-quality path (PQP28) once the Charter ends in June 2028.
Our role
We are setting the first price-quality path for Watercare (PQP28) under Part 4 of the Commerce Act. It will apply when the Charter ends in mid-2028.
Under a price-quality path we can set the maximum amount of money that Watercare can recover from consumers, and the quality of service they need to provide for that money. We can also set a minimum amount of money they can recover, if we think this helps consumers in the long term.
A price-quality path works with other components of economic regulation, like information disclosure (ID) that requires Watercare to publish information that lets stakeholders understand whether it's delivering the quality of service it must.
Process update
After considering submissions on our Approach paper, we are revising our planned consultation process. This will provide greater opportunity to engage with our key decisions for PQP28 and the basis for them.
We now plan to publish an Emerging Views paper in June / July 2026. This will provide firmer proposals than outlined in the Approach paper and will be open to consultation. Further technical consultation may also follow, before consultation our draft decisions.
Our full update is outlined in the letter below.
Input methodologies
Regulatory certainty and predictability are important. As outlined in our Approach Paper we consider the regulatory regime and long-term benefit of consumers are better served if we defer considering whether to set any input methodologies applying to Watercare until after setting PQP28, as permitted under the Commerce Act.
Approach Paper and proof-of-concept model
We published our Approach Paper for consultation, as our first formal step in setting PQP28. We published this paper to promote regulatory predictability and seek early feedback from interested stakeholders.
We also published a 'proof-of-concept' model to assist consideration of our preferred approach to setting the initial regulated asset base if we ultimately decide to limit Watercare's revenues by applying a 'building blocks' approach. The model is solely an illustrative tool subject to refinement and is not part of our decision making.
Consultation on these closed 5 February 2026 and we published the responses we received.