Labour is floating the idea of cutting back on the dividends taken from Housing New Zealand, so the agency can afford to fix up more state houses.

Information released under the Official Information Act show the Government has received $90 million from Housing New Zealand over the past 12 months.

Labour leader Andrew Little said if a third of that dividend was reinvested into improving the housing stock, it would save children from mouldy and cold homes.

"It's going to cost about $35 million to bring all state houses up to spec. The ones in need of repair, they're taking $90 million a year out. This is an easy fix. Cut the dividend," Mr Little said. 

"I'm surprised that housing New Zealand management haven't said stop, we've got to fix our housing stock because we've got kids who are unhealthy and unwell. No cabinet minister has shown any moral fibre and said we've got to do things differently, but now's the time to do it."

But Minister Responsible for Housing New Zealand Bill English said there's no need to make the changes.

"Any house that needs repair, gets repaired - so there isn't really a problem with shortage
of cash to repair the houses."