Punch has appointed property agent Christie & Co to sell the sites.

The Christie's office in Leeds said it was too early to say which sites will be sold and how many will go in Yorkshire. But it is thought that dozens will be put up for sale across the region.

The Yorkshire branch of pub campaign group Camra condemned the fact that the pubs are being put up for sale at the same time.

"These pubs may well be bought by speculators and put to other uses," said Camra's campaigns and research manager Iain Loe. "If this is a fire sale and Punch takes on the first buyer, the community could lose their pub. We hope Punch will allow enough time to find buyers who will retain the sites as pubs."

Neil Morgan, Christie & Co's head of pubs said: "We expect the majority of these pubs to continue to be operated as licensed premises, although a significant number will provide ideal alternative-use opportunities across the residential, commercial and retail sectors."

Punch, which has over 8,000 mostly leased pubs, said some of the properties had previously been on the market and that prices range from nil-premium leases to £500,000.

The firm, which set up a turnaround unit for underperforming pubs earlier this year, said it had tried to offload some of the pubs before, but it has now cut prices to try and spark interest in the sites.

The pubs are spread across the UK and most are being sold with vacant possession. Around 90 per cent of the sites are freehold.

Punch has suffered a series of blows in recent years, with the smoking ban, rising beer duty, cut-price competition from supermarkets and a plunge in consumer spending all taking their toll.

Last month the firm said it had offloaded more than a third of the 1,250 pubs in its turnaround division, but had identified a further 450 sites to be transferred into it.

The firm saw its share price jump four per cent at one point on Thursday after a leading investor said the company should sell off all its pubs and call time on its business completely.

Schroders fund manager Andy Brough said that the difference between the value of the company's assets and its share price meant it made sense to sell pubs, pay back debt and return what was left to shareholders.

Punch recently carried out a £375m fundraising with shareholders in order to prevent it being forced into disposing of core parts of its pub estate.

The group has cut its borrowings by around £1bn in its last financial year, taking its debt down to around £3.5bn.

Last month Punch said its tenanted estate had arrested the rate of decline seen earlier in the year.

In the managed pubs estate, which includes city centre sites, like-for-like sales were down on the performance in the third quarter, when trading was boosted by better weather and the timing of Easter.

While late June and early July benefited from good summer weather, Punch said the remainder of the summer had been unhelpful to trading.

Analysts calculated that sales in the managed estate were down two per cent in the past 12 weeks, leading to a drop of 0.6 per cent in the half year.


Thirty-nine being lost every week

Some 39 pubs are closing every week, according to the latest Beer & Pub Association report.

Research by CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, shows that 84 per cent of people believe that a pub is as essential to village life as a shop or post office.

Despite their popularity, pubs are still under threat and CAMRA has called on pub goers to join its "Save Our Pubs" campaign.

According to the Beer & Pub Association, community pub numbers have been falling gradually for decades, but closure rates have accelerated in the last two years.

A number of connected factors have all played a role.

Alcohol consumption tends to rise and fall with economic prosperity and the recent downturn in the economy has affected pub incomes.

At the same time tastes and lifestyles have changed with more people drinking wine and fewer people drinking beer – the mainstay of most pub incomes.

The pub has also faced competition from alternative leisure pursuits, such as restaurants and cinema. In addition there has been a significant rise in the number of people drinking at home, rather than in pubs and bars.