An organisation for landlords has welcomed signals that the government may reverse the ban on bedsits.

Bedsits were outlawed in 2013 on health and safety grounds.

However, the housing crisis has led to increasing calls to legalise single occupancy units.

Fintan McNamara from the Residential Landlords Association said his members never understood the original "foolish" ban.

"It was a very foolish move in the first place to put a blanket ban. There's no quesiton that some of them weren't fit for purpose but to ban them all outright - some of them were very qood quality," he said.

"The only fault was that they didn't have bathrooms en-suite and it was that you shared with one or two other people," he added.