A FORMER night shelter, which has put a roof over the heads of hundreds of people sleeping rough in south Wiltshire, has been sold.

Harestock Cottage, in Whiteparish, was sold for £275,000, following an auction held in London.

A spokesman for auctioneers Colliers CRE said the property did not reach its reserve in the room and was sold after the auction proceedings.

He added that he was unable to say who had bought the cottage.

Andrew Reynolds, head of strategic housing for Salisbury district council, which owned Harestock Cottage, was also unable to say who had bought the property, or whether the site might be developed.

He said the £275,000 price achieved was a good result and added that the council's cabinet had pledged to ringfence the money to ensure it was spent on services for homeless people.

The original recommendation by the cabinet was to identify money to be put towards a specific project, he said.

"The council will honour that - members have already made a commitment to homelessness and these resources will be wrapped up in that provision," said Mr Reynolds.

He said the council was still seeking a suitable property for a crisis assessment centre, which would include a night shelter and other services for homeless people.

Harestock Cottage was leased to Salisbury Trust for the Homeless as a night shelter from 1997, until October 2002, and before that was used as a homeless families' hostel.

The two-storey, brick-built property, with a timberclad extension, had eight bedrooms, a kitchen, lounge and diningroom, and staff areas and an office.

There is a parking area and the site extends to .85 of an acre.