The political tit for tat between the Labour-led government and the National party is being blamed for getting in the way of dealing with the root causes of New Zealand's housing crisis.

Recently released figures show the waitlist for public housing has hit a record high - reaching nearly 14,500 households.

National is blaming Labour's housing policies for the growing waitlist, but Labour says after nine years of neglect under National, it has delivered more than 3-thousand state housing places since coming to power.

Housing advocates say finger pointing is getting in the way of building a solution.

Jonathan Mitchell reports.