SELWOOD Housing has come under fire because a home it owns in Westbury has been uninhabited for nearly seven months.

Frogmore House, in Frogmore Road, was taken over by the affordable housing company in 2009, and a family moved in. However, since the family left in November, it has been empty.

A woman who wishes to remain anonymous said: “It seems to me that Selwood keep moving the goalposts, making it harder for people who need housing to find it, and Frogmore House is a prime example of this.

“You have to be really desperate to get a house through Selwood Housing, and that isn’t how it should be.

“The fact that house has been empty for so long is simply baffling.

“That lovely property in Frogmore Road, which would easily house a whole family, remains empty. It just doesn’t make sense. There are families on the waiting list who would love to live there.

“There’s also a safety aspect too. Nobody is guarding the house which means squatters could easily move into it if they wanted, which wouldn’t be good for people living in that estate.”

McCarthy & Stone Development had previously owned the house before selling it to Selwood Housing, which had its application to create 30 homes for affordable rent and 56 car parking spaces approved, in 2009.

A spokesman for Selwood Housing said: “Frogmore House was developed as part of a scheme to build 30 affordable homes and was occupied until November 2015.

“When the home became empty it needed work doing to it to bring it back up to the standard our homes must meet, but as the building is grade II listed, the work needed to put it back into condition for our tenants to live in with affordable running costs for them, would be extremely expensive and time consuming.

“The windows are single glazed and the general energy performance of the property is poor, making running costs such as heating, unaffordable for many of our customers.

“In February this year the Selwood Housing Board agreed that Frogmore House wasn’t suitable for affordable housing and recommended that it was sold at auction with the money raised being reinvested into building new homes in the local area.

“Selwood Housing is now seeking approval from the regulator, the Homes and Communities Agency, to sell Frogmore House, so as yet, there is no auction date.”