A TOTAL of 29 shops, offices, cafes, flats and other building in Taunton are up for sale at more than £2 million.

Riverside Place and St James Street/Riverside are going to auction in London, with a price tag of "£2 million plus" for the freehold.

Current owner Scotsgrove Holdings will then rent back the properties for £120,000 per annum as part of the terms of a 125-year lease.

Bidding gets underway at the Lambert Smith Hampton auction in Piccadilly, London, on Monday, July 17.

The properties are beside Coal Orchard, where planning consent was granted this week for a massive homes, shops and offices development.

Brian Haimes, of Scotsgrove Holdings, which owns a number of properties elsewhere in Taunton town centre, said: "We're just adjusting part of our portfolio - that's an ongoing process.

"We'll remain landlords to the existing tenants. We're simply offering a slice of our ownership.

"We're basically selling the freehold, but then we're taking a lease back for 125 years.

"We're as a matter of course regularly looking at our portfolio. We're always selling and always buying."