UPDATED 12.05pm: There are no apologies from the Government for taking a monster dividend from Housing New Zealand. 

Housing New Zealand is set to pay its biggest dividend to the Government in five years, of $118 million.

The consent process, rather than cashflow, is getting the blame for slow upgrades to social housing stock.

That's drawn criticism that no profits should be taken while there's still a problem with cold and damp houses.

But Finance Minister Bill English said the dividend isn't the problem.

"The main constraint on Housing NZ is building houses as fast as they can within the planing consents and they're upgrading houses as fast as they can physically organise them."

The Green party has said the Government shouldn't be taking profits when houses need upgrading, but English reported it's just business as usual.

"It varies from year to year. It's been much lower than that and I think it will be lower than that again next year."