Garden cabins planning exemption to be reviewed within 18 months, ministers say

By Cillian Sherlock and Grainne Ni Aodha, Press Association

A proposal to allow garden cabins to be built without planning permission and to be rented out privately is to be reviewed within 18 months.

The proposal, which goes before Cabinet on Tuesday, aims to offer “an added layer of potential supply” in the rental market and to “free up the planning system” from an over-concentration on smaller developments, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said.

Housing Minister James Browne said the units would not be included in the Government’s yearly housing figures.

The Government is to exempt units up to 45 square metres in size in gardens at the back of people’s homes from requiring planning permission.

It is expected that the proposal would require 25 square metres of the garden to be left free and must include side access to the property.

There had been discussions in government about whether to bring such dwellings under the Rent-a-Room Relief scheme, which allows someone who rents a room in their home to earn up to €14,000 tax-free.

The Government has confirmed it will now allow them to be rented out privately.

Concerns have been raised by housing advocacy group Threshold that “substandard” garden units could be rented out without appropriate inspections while planners said making them available to rent privately “risks unintended consequences for residential amenity, infrastructure, access, parking and enforcement etc”.

Speaking on the way into Cabinet on Tuesday morning, Browne said the proposal would be reviewed within 18 months.

Asked about whether there were figures on how many units they expected to be built under this exemption, Mr Browne said: “It’s about simplification, it’s not about trying to extrapolate how many there’s going to be.”

Martin said there were “very serious challenges in housing”, including in the provision of rental accommodation.

“This is just an added layer of potential supply to the market, which is very, very important,” he said.

“We have to pull out all the stops to deal with housing because the younger generation need access, and anything that takes pressure off the rental market is a positive in my view.

“I think there’s a broader conversation about rental protections and tenancy protections for people who are in a licensed agreement outside the traditional tenancy agreement. That’s not a reason not to go ahead with this and people have been waiting a long time for this.”

Tánaiste and finance minister Simon Harris said on Tuesday: “I think it’s important that we take the planner out of the back garden, and that we enable planners to be freed up to work on critical infrastructure, to work on major housing developments, and provide people in this country with a degree of flexibility around what they choose to do with their own garden.

“Obviously, they’ve got to operate within regulations, building standards and the like, but I think this is a positive measure in a housing emergency, but also I think it’s a positive planning reform measure too.”

He added: “There is a housing emergency, and we have to, and I believe this instinctively, we have to remove bureaucracy and administration and red tape and make it as easy as possible for people to be able to have homes, have shelters, use their own garden space as well.

“But it is also important we look at this and keep it under tight review. So built into the proposal today will be a review within 18 months and I think that is important.”