THE Bathurst Estate has put around 20 of its properties on the market, including some with long-standing tenants in, after realising it was not affordable to keep them on.

Several Bathurst tenants based in Cirencester and surrounding villages have been told they have two months to move out of their homes.

Bathurst resident agent Edward Allsop said the majority of tenants asked to move out have managed to find suitable accommodation somewhere else in the given time period.

“We have had to serve some notices but we have no problem at all with any residents,” said Mr Allsop. “If there was a problem with them finding somewhere else then we help sort things out but they have been very pro-active.”

The Bathurst Estate owns and lets around 175 houses on top of the cottages and agricultural buildings it also owns.

After completing the purchase of Kemble Farms last year, which had around 40 properties in total, the Estate agents have now come to realise that several properties needed to be let go, in order to keep finances on track.

Mr Allsop added: “The Estate has not sold residential properties in the past but it has not had these types of circumstances in the past.”