More than 800 towns and cities around the UK are up for sale. Well, virtually.

Businessman Andy Hind has spent the past year building up a national network of websites of every town and city in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales with 10,000 residents or more.

The sites, which are receiving more than a million hits a month, are being offered for sale as part of the 2cUK network's expansion plans.

Purchasers can now "own" their town or city, and build it into a business by offering a range of products and services to local businesses and domestic users. Mr Hind believes the sites are a snip at only £299 each.

Located at the main domain name of www.2cUK.co.uk every site provides local information on a vast array of topics and services, including an online business directory, what's-on guides, local weather and free local e-mail services. The site is so parochial it can even locate your nearest pub or plumber.

Mr Hind has taken the headache out of sourcing local information for residents and businesses around the country - which he says is what most people want to know about, without having to surf the world. All sites can be accessed by typing www.2c followed by the town/city name, then.co.uk For example Edinburgh is www.2cEdinburgh.co.uk which incidentally was one of the first sites to sell.

But he has gone much further with more than 700 sites dedicated to individual subject areas, including 2cBooks, 2cCars, 2cJobs, 2cPets, 2cShopping, 2cProperty, 2cFinance, 2cCulture and many more. All sites are linked to each other.

Based at the North East of England Business and Innovation Centre (Bic) in Sunderland, Mr Hind, who already has a successful online house purchase site, has spent over a year developing the local sites and the products and services they offer.

Internet users no longer have to search the whole www and numerous search engines to find the information and services they need.

Mr Hind said: "We envisage that the sites will be attractive to a number of audiences, including individual start-up businesses and website designers, who want to use it to promote their own business, while attracting other local businesses on to the site. They can also offer virtual reality tours to their clients of properties for sale, restaurants and holiday locations."

New site owners receive a fully constructed website with search engines, ownership of the domain name, a starter pack and the back-up support of 2cUK to give them guidance on how to build the business.

Mr Hind said: "It is very difficult to establish a successful and profitable website yourself. There are many benefits of joining our nationwide network such as shared resources, shared knowledge and shared experiences. We provide our site owners with help every step of the way.

"The idea to develop 2cUK.co.uk was born out of frustration. As a regular user of the Internet, every time I tried to look for something, I had to sort through websites from all over the world. Like most people, I wanted to find a website which could tell me where I could find things close to home. After all, no one wants to tour the world to buy a book or go to the cinema."

The North-East of England Bic, which is a dedicated business start-up centre, is supporting Mr Hind in his venture with a promotional campaign to publicise his unique websites around the UK.

Mr Hind can be contacted via www.2cUK.co.uk or on 0191-516 6373.