More than 300 social housing projects across the country are being held up while Kāinga Ora assesses their economic viability, 1News can reveal.

The Government ordered a full review of the public housing agency's operations in May after a highly critical report found it was "not financially viable". The Government-commissioned report found that operational deficits were forecast to balloon from $520 million in 2022/23 to more than $700 million in 2026/27.

One of the projects affected includes a lot of 24 homes to be built on a site in Gore. Around $2.5 million had been spent preparing the location when it was put on hold.

A further $24 million was spent buying and preparing land at a site in Auckland.

"I think that if you look at the waitlist in this country and how there's families that are in need of housing in regional areas as well as our big cities, every single public house that was scheduled to be built was needed," Vanessa Cole, a campaigner for community organisation ActionStation, told 1News.

When the Government ordered a full review of Kāinga Ora, it included looking at all builds and redevelopments.

As of July 31, there were 371 projects being assessed — of which 48 are proceeding.

It leaves a further 323 in doubt after $293,143,562 was already spent.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop said it was simply "business as usual for Kāinga Ora".

When you own 72,000 houses and you’re building and redeveloping and engaging in asset management and retrofitting of a variety of different houses, everything's always under assessment," he said.

Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty called the argument "a load of rubbish".

"It's business as usual for Kāinga Ora to build houses. It's not business as usual for Kāinga Ora to stop building houses," he said.

The agency said while some projects may not be financially viable, they may be redesigned rather than outright cancelled.

"We are trying to get Kāinga Ora building in areas where there is real housing need, and the most obvious invisible manifestation of where that housing need is where there are people living in emergency housing," Bishop said.

There are a total of 3600 homes under contract or construction. However, even if the projects on the list go ahead, they will have already been delayed for months.

Cole said the pauses and delays on the developments doesn't just impact families in need of housing, but also the wider construction sector "because homes are not being built".

But Bishop said the assessment is about ensuring value for taxpayer dollars.