Developers will be able to bid for Old House in Brentwood at auction later this year, when it is due to go under the hammer with a reserve price of £700,000.

Estate agents Savills will hold the auction at the The Marriott Hotel, in Grosvenor Square, London, on November 2.

The Grade II-listed building will come with a planning brief specifying it should be used in a way to benefit the community.

The purchaser need not stick to this planning stipulation, but any other use would have to be applied for via the borough council.

The plan, put forward by Brentwood Borough Council's Tory administration, follows promises it would reverse many decisions made by the previous Accord administration.

Last December, the Gazette reported how former councillor Russell Quirk outlined plans to invest more than £1million in Old House to develop it into six flats.

He said the building could generate £80,300 a year, with each tenant paying between £12,000 and £14,000 a year.