Government changes to freshwater policy means Horizons One Plan Change notification will be pushed out

Horizons' One Plan will not be notified for a few years, now that the government has decided to make changes to their freshwater policy. Photo/ Alyssa Smith

A government decision to change the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management is a factor in Horizon Regional Council’s decision to postpone notification of its One Plan Freshwater Plan Change.

With the initial deadline set at December this year, it will now be late 2026 or early 2027, though this could be earlier, chair Rachel Keedwell said.

That is not necessarily bad news, though some will be disappointed at the delay, she said.

The government also moved the deadline for any changes to be submitted by regional councils out to December 2027, another reason to push out the notification locally.

Keedwell said Horizons staff had done a lot of work on this already but more was needed, including measured or estimated water use records from consent holders, estimating the current Permitted Activity allocation of water to give a more fulsome picture of the amount of water taken from rivers, streams and groundwater, and revisiting some methodology studies which inform existing allocation limits.

“There is considerable science and policy work we need to complete and review to fill information gaps and support policy development and subsequent plan drafting.

“This includes delivery of regional economic modelling, farm scale economic modelling and social impact assessment work, much of which requires engaging experts who are in demand across the country as every regional and unitary council goes through this plan change process.

“Moving the notification date also gives iwi, hapū, primary industries groups and others in the community more time to give feedback, something which we have heard has been challenging under the current timeframes.

“The delay could also give us the chance to align the freshwater plan change with a review of other parts of the One Plan. This would be beneficial as there is a need for the One Plan to be reviewed.

“Moving the date will help us to have a fulsome, complete and robust plan change. We will, however, regularly review this work and bring forward the notification date if we can.

“We still need to respond to freshwater challenges in our region. Stopping the decline of freshwater health and getting improvements in freshwater quality will remain the focus regardless of any framework provided by any national policy statement for freshwater management.

“We will continue to do work to improve water quality, be it planting and fencing waterways, continuing to work with landowners to keep soils on hill country through the Sustainable Land Use Initiative, helping community groups do water quality improvement projects by providing grants, or other initiatives we have.

“We have also committed to having tangata whenua directly involved in the development of the revised work programme.”

For more information about Horizons’ work on freshwater management policy changes, see https://freshwater.horizons.govt.nz.