MILLIONS of pounds worth of the south’s assets will be sold off in a “fire sale” but the region may not benefit from the windfall, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Ministers have ordered that land and property owned by the South East Regional Development Agency (SEEDA) is put on the market when it closes in 2012 but have warned there would be no “automatic presumption’’ the cash raised will be returned to the area.

The list includes the former Vosper Thornycroft site in Woolston, where more than 1,300 homes are planned as well as a major employment park.

Plots of land at business parks and commercial office blocks, as well as at Hythe Marine Park and Cowes Waterfront, are all earmarked for sale.

Daily Echo: Click below to see a video of today's headlines in sixty seconds

The Government is axing SEEDA and introducing smaller local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), which it hopes will carry on the work of attracting investors and promoting businesses. But critics claim the flagship policy is a “shambles” with the new agencies having no money or real power.

Shadow Business Secretary John Denham MP for Southampton Itchen, said: “The Vosper site is hugely important. A fortune of public money has been spent on cleaning up the land.

“Construction of homes has just started but most of the development is still to go. If the land is just sold off to the highest bidder I can just see it will be milked. It is important that it is not just covered in warehouse. An American boatbuilding firm was due to go there but is pulling out because of the recession.

“It is vital we get high skilled jobs on there. This is one of the biggest and most critical sites for the city.

“This is money that was committed to the region and the region should get a fair say about what happens to it.’’ As SEEDA is wound up assets it has accrued over the last decade will be put up for sale with big ticket items including Hythe Marine Park, the former US Army base at RAF Hythe, which closed in September 2006.

SEEDA bought the site the following year from the Ministry of Defence stating that, as one of the last available waterside employment locations in The Solent area, it was a key area for the marine industry.

Also on the list are parts of the Cowes Waterfront area where SEEDA invested £10m on the acquisition of 40 acres of former GKN North Works at East Cowes.