A former Suffolk housing association home has been sold for £428,000, despite concerns about the dwindling availability of housing stock for local residents.

Craig Royston House, in Victoria Road, Aldeburgh, has been sold through property website rightmove, despite Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey criticising Flagship Group for selling vacant properties in Orford and Aldeburgh, rather than bringing them back to 'lettable standards'.

She said money from the sale of the homes was being used to build new properties in Newmarket or Essex, but not to replace local housing stock.

READ MORE: Therese Coffey concerned over homes sold in Aldeburgh

In her EADT column this week, she said: "I want to see more affordable homes in Suffolk Coastal for local people to buy or rent. 

"Decades ago, the old Suffolk Coastal Council transferred their council housing to Flagship Group for them to be efficiently run. 

"Most of the homes are not available for tenants to use the Right to Buy scheme but are being sold off in open auction in places like Aldeburgh, Orford or Snape.

"Those homes are not being replaced locally but providing funding to build new homes miles away in Newmarket or even Essex. 

READ MORE: Aldeburgh news

"Too often, it seems that they have been sold to people buying them as a second home or to be let out."

In January, Aldeburgh Mayor Kevin Webster spoke of his 'sadness and worry' about the sale of Craig Royston House.

He said: "Aldeburgh Town Council wrote to Newtide Homes (Flagship) previously to convey our disappointment that they were disposing of Craig Royston House because of the history within the town but more importantly providing critical local homes.

"We are saddened and worried by their proposals and we would like to see any money raised from the sale ploughed back into Aldeburgh and have requested they maintain other local homes so that this doesn’t happen again."

However, a Flagship spokesman said: “At Flagship, our vision is to solve the housing crisis and to fulfil this, we must continue to build more homes, but also continue to improve the homes we offer.

“One of the ways we do this is to review our empty homes to see if they are fit for purpose and sell some of the older, inefficient, or less suitable homes so that we can reinvest in new, replacement homes - which will help support tenants for the long term.

“Over the years, we have worked closely with councils and in the first instance, we will always offer the homes we sell to like-minded organisations, such as local authorities and particularly in smaller communities, parish councils.

"Last year, as a group, the homes we sold helped us to build 634 affordable homes across the region.

"Additionally, over the next two years, we will be providing 156 new homes in east Suffolk.

“Our new homes programme always ensures that we continue to provide significantly more new homes than we sell and that we can continue to provide our tenants with affordable, high-quality homes for generations to come.”

READ MORE: Suffolk news