Families fear they will be left homeless after a charity landlord puts the entire STREET up for sale for £1.6million

Families fear they will be forced to leave their homes after one of Britain’s biggest charities put an entire street of 24 houses up for sale for £1.6 million.

Dock Road in Sharpness, Gloucestershire, will be auctioned next week by the Canal and River Trust, which has owned Sharpness Dock for 150 years.

The single plot consists of twelve terraced houses, eight semi-detached houses and two detached houses, according to property auction house Allsop, which is handling the sale.

Currently the ‘rare uninterrupted street’ generates rentals of around £168,000 for the Canal and River Trust.

A spokesperson for the trust explained how all properties will be sold together as one plot to a single buyer and that this will ‘make no change to residents’ tenancies’, meaning ‘no one will be required to leave their home’.

Tenants, however, were informed of the sale via a letter from Allsop, are ‘shocked and concerned’ that a new owner would likely increase rents, forcing them to leave.

Amanda Cawston, 54, who has lived in the same house with her husband and son for almost three years, fears she will be forced to leave her family home.

“We thought we were going to be here forever and now we don’t know what the future holds,” she said.

‘It’s a shock: we spent a lot of time getting the house the way we want it. In the long run we may not be able to afford this house.

“It’s a real concern. We have Christmas coming up. It’s a great community and everyone gets along well.

‘Maybe we should move again. We are not in a position to buy and the rental prices are expensive. We really don’t want to leave if we don’t have to.

‘I can’t imagine that rents will remain the same, perhaps they will rise in line with private landlords.’

Mrs Cawston added that she fears her son, who is 19 and works two minutes from home, will be deprived of his “independence”.

“It’s great for him because he doesn’t drive – everything is on his doorstep,” she explained.

‘These are all very old houses here and there are some damp problems, so it would be nice if there was a landlord who cared.’

Dave Morse, 78, a resident for 25 years, said his biggest concern is that whoever takes the sale will raise the rent and have “a lot of do’s and don’ts.”

He said: ‘I would be sad to lose it here as I have done a lot of work inside and outside the house and I would be disappointed if I had to leave.’

Jack Meredith, 29, who only took to the streets a month ago, added: ‘It’s a bit of a shock but we all knew this would happen after the drains were done.

‘It’s a lovely little site here – it’s perfect for everyone and most of the people here work in the port anyway, so this is ideal.

‘I really like living here, my work is two minutes around the corner.’

James Cooke, 27, who lives with his parents, said: ‘We’ve lived here all our lives. We want the dock to be what it is.

‘My parents are in their sixties and don’t want to be stressed about moving. We agreed to take this house as it was, because the price was a little cheaper.’

Zoe Walker, 45, moved into her home on Dock Road in 2006 and explained that she has ‘nowhere to go’ if she is forced to leave.

“I’ve been on the council list for a long time, but if you have a roof over your head, there’s nothing you can do about it,” she said.

‘There is a lot of uncertainty about the rent and how much it will increase if we actually remain as a tenant. Nobody knows. We just have to wait and see.

“It could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on who hires them. They do need a lot of work, so it is inevitable that they will increase prices.’

Suze Ashford-Barnes, 42, has lived on the same street for seven years.

She said she was not shocked by the landlord’s decision to auction the street, but she stated that it was not “very nice” to receive the letter as she would have preferred to be told in person.

She said: “They couldn’t sell the houses because of the sewage system. So when they started repairing the circular sewerage system, the houses could be sold.

‘If prices rise, so be it. We like living here, as long as they solve the moisture problem. We think it’s fine, because it is difficult to find a rental property elsewhere.

‘We like it and we accept that it is cheaper here and we have no intention of moving anywhere else.

‘The houses were built by hand by the dock workers, there is a lot of history in them. It is really an attachment for us; we are lucky to live here.”

A 37-year-old tenant who lives with her mother and children says the neighborhood is a “nice area to live in” and she doesn’t want to leave.

“It’s kind of sad that they’re auctioning it off when they’re gone and hopefully they’ll get this repaired and repaired,” she said.

‘We are afraid that the costs we rent will increase. We would have to move if the rent went up because we couldn’t afford it.”

Sharpness is located at the seaward end of the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal.

The Canal and River Trust, one of Britain’s largest charities caring for 2,000 miles of canals, rivers, docks and reservoirs, is the statutory port authority for Sharpness Port and has owned Sharpness Dock for 150 years.

A spokesperson for the Canal and River Trust said: ‘Our charity is in contact with residents about the sale of the properties along Dock Road. The sale will take place in early November via auction.

‘It is our intention that all houses will be sold together as one lot to one buyer.

‘We understand that a change of ownership may seem unsettling, but in practice, whilst there will be a change of ownership, there will be no change to our residents’ tenancies, i.e. no one will have to leave their home and that the properties will be sold. apply the same conditions as the tenants.

“We will stay in touch with our tenants as the sales process progresses.”

Dock Road goes to auction on Thursday, November 7 with a guide price of £1.575 million.

The sale of the plot also includes two semi-detached mixed-use buildings, a one-storey workshop, three garages and 1.7 hectares of vacant land. One of the buildings was the Sharpness Post Office.