PUB operator Eldridge Pope today announced the sale of 23 pubs, including seven in Hampshire, for £5.4m.

It is part of the company's "back to basics'' approach to reduce debts of £44.5m.

After the group reported a slump into the red in June, new boss Susan Barratt vowed to tidy up the group's business with a cull of underperforming sites.

Pubs affected by the disposal include the Bevois Castle and Park Hotel in Southampton, the Earth Bar in Eastleigh, the Hampshire Rose at Fareham, the Bugle at Twyford, Winchester, the Carpenters Arms at Bransgore in the New Forest, the Leather Bottle at Mattingley, near Basingstoke, and - the Bird in Hand and the Cornmarket Inn in Salisbury.

Today, the Dorset-based group has agreed to sell 18 pubs to Inntown Pub and Property Company for £3.9m and a further five outlets to different buyers for £1.5 million.

The sale to Inntown - expected to be completed by December 1 - will be used to ease the company's debt.

Ms Barratt said: "The disposal of these pubs is a further step in our 'back to basics' strategy, which has already seen improved trading performance across the group's inns and pubs divisions.''

Dorchester-based Eldridge Pope has 174 managed and tenanted pubs in the south of England.