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LAST UPDATE | 21 Apr
A PROPOSED POLICY to allow homeowners to build modular units up to 45 square metres in their back gardens without planning permission will “cut red tape” and “see more housing delivered quicker”, according to the Housing Minister.
The Government is to exempt units between 32 and 45 square metres in size in gardens at the back of people’s homes from requiring planning permission.
A Department spokesperson said the changes are “motivated by the practical need for homeowners to maximise the efficient use of residential space through enhancements, expansion or adaptation if they wish to do so”.
Minister for Housing James Browne said he has been “laser focused on cutting red tape, reducing bureaucracy and streamlining systems to get Ireland building better and faster”.
He added that the proposed changes will “make the system easier for citizens while freeing up planning resources for more complex priorities”.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Planning, John Cummins, remarked that the “reforms are about empowering people in terms of their own garden space or space within their own home”.
Threshold, Age Action, and the Irish Council for International Students have come together to condemn the move, saying it’ll create “insecure arrangements” for renters, because they’ll likely be deemed “licensees” rather than tenants, limiting their rights.
The groups added: “Removing planning requirements also increases the likelihood that poorly designed and unsuitable housing will be delivered, without adequate oversight or assessment of local impacts such as additional demand on water or energy services.”
Earlier, both Tánaiste Simon Harris and Taoiseach Micheál Martin spoke to reporters about the proposed changes on their way into Cabinet.
Harris also said it’s “important” the measure is reviewed 18 months after it comes into effect.
“I think it’s important 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,” he said.
Currently, planning exemptions allow a 40 square metres extension to the rear of a property once it’s attached to the house and this will be increased to 45 square metres.
When the change was first flagged last year, the government stated that this initiative was to enable both younger and older generations to live within their own communities and close to family.
Yesterday, Martin said government had changed their mind on the measure for “practical” reasons and these cabins will be able to be rented out privately under the Rent-A-Room scheme, where people can earn up to €14,000 tax free each year.
A Department spokesperson today remarked that Harris will “consider the tax arrangements for auxiliary dwellings and how it interacts with the ‘Rent-a-Room’ tax relief as part of the normal Budgetary process and will bring forward any necessary amendments.
Speaking this morning, Harris added: “There is a housing emergency, and 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.”
Making garden homes available to rent privately offers “an added layer of potential supply” which was “very, very important”, the Taoiseach said this morning.
He said the government also wanted to “free up the planning system” from an over-concentration on smaller developments.
“This is just an added layer of potential supply to the market, which is very, very important,” he said.
“We have very serious challenges in housing, in terms of a sufficiency of rental accommodation, and we know that.
“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.
“We will keep it under review. It is a new departure, as I said yesterday, we will keep it under review.”
Fianna Fáil’s spokesperson on housing, TD Seamus McGrath, said this morning on RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh that even without the requirement of planning permission, the local authorities must have notices lodged of intention to build such a unit.
“It’s not a case that these will just start popping up and we won’t have control over this,” McGrath said. There will also be rules around the size, height, and amount of the garden the units can take up.
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said on the same programme that the party supported the initial plans where the measure was flagged as being for family members, but he has “grave cause for concern” at its repositioning for private rental stock.
“Crucially, not only do we have the possibility of the proliferation of large volumes of poor quality modular units, but the government is proposing that these people will have no tenancy rights whatsoever, that they would be licensees,” he said.
Licensees do not have the same rental protections as tenants, and Ó Broin said for private renters occupying a unit as a licensee, this would be deeply problematic.
Additional reporting by PA
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