Prime Minister Bill English said privately seven years ago a housing crisis was looming in Auckland, a senior Salvation Army official says.

Major Campbell Roberts said in 2010, Mr English - then finance minister - told him he feared a crisis on the horizon.

But as Prime Minister, Mr English has consistently said in public there is no housing crisis.

Photo: RNZ / Supplied

Mr Roberts, founder of the Salvation Army's social policy unit, told Morning Report the comments were made during a phone conversation in which Mr English was asking him to be part of the Housing Shareholders Advisory Group.

The group was set up by the government in February 2010 to provide independent advice on effective delivery of state housing, with Mr Roberts as one of its members.

"He [Mr English] saidwas saying politicians generally have had a number of inquiries, going back to the Royal Commission on social policy, Labour's housing strategy and then the Housing Shareholders Group.

"And the point I was making was that everyone has realised and been told clearly by experts in the field - whether it be from the private sector or the community sector - that we need to do something about the supply of housing, particularly in Auckland.

"But subsequent government's haven't operated fast enough or urgently enough."

A spokesperson for the prime minister said Mr English was having a number of such conversations on housing reform at the time, including with a housing advisory group which included the Salvation Army and he doesn't recall exactly what he said.

"At the time the government was