This is a summary of the draft Homes for Bury Housing Strategy 2026 to 2036, which is being published for public consultation. The full draft strategy, an easy read version, and details of how to have your say are available on the consultation webpage.
Introduction
Housing plays a fundamental role in shaping people's lives in Bury, supporting health and wellbeing, enabling independence, and creating the conditions for strong, thriving communities. This ten-year strategy sets a clear long-term direction for housing in the borough. It is rooted in evidence from a review of housing needs and shaped by engagement with residents, stakeholders, and partners.
The strategy covers the full breadth of housing in Bury: delivering new homes, regenerating our town centres, improving council homes and services, supporting people to live well and independently, preventing homelessness, raising standards in the private rented sector, and creating sustainable, healthy neighbourhoods.
Our borough and the challenges we face
Bury is a borough of approximately 200,000 residents and has been growing steadily since 2011. The population is ageing faster than the national average, households are getting smaller, and the borough is more diverse than a decade ago. Around two thirds of households own their home, while private renting has grown sharply and now accounts for almost one in five households.
House prices and rents have risen faster than incomes, and demand for affordable and social housing far outstrips supply. The housing register is under sustained pressure, more households are experiencing homelessness or living in temporary accommodation, and much of the borough's housing stock is older, energy inefficient and hard to adapt. Bury is also not one housing market: conditions vary considerably between places, from the borough's most affordable market in East Bury to high demand and affordability pressure in Prestwich. The challenge is not just to build more homes, but to build the right homes in the right places.
Our vision and objectives
Our vision is: working together to ensure everyone in Bury has access to a safe, affordable home that reduces inequalities, supports health and wellbeing, and creates strong, thriving communities.
The strategy is built around five strategic objectives:
- Deliver more homes: ensuring the right number and mix of new homes are built in the right places to meet current and future needs while creating sustainable, well-connected communities.
- Improve quality, efficiency, and use: raising standards across all homes, making them safer, warmer and more energy efficient, while making better use of existing housing stock
- Enable access to homes that meet needs: helping residents find and keep homes that are affordable, suitable and support their independence, health and wellbeing.
- Prevent homelessness and create pathways: taking a proactive and coordinated approach to prevent homelessness and ensure access to stable, appropriate housing at every stage of life.
- Excellent landlord, better homes, stronger places: investing in high-quality council homes, improving the tenant experience, and reimagining estates as safe, sustainable, and thriving places where people are proud to live.
Building on progress
Since our last strategy, Bury has delivered 1,339 new homes (2020 to 2025), including 384 affordable homes, unlocked eight brownfield sites, and secured significant external funding to prepare sites for development. Housing management has been brought back in-house, giving the Council direct control of around 7,716 council homes. Major regeneration is under way, including the £33 million Bury Market scheme, the £40 million Radcliffe Hub, and a transformed village centre in Prestwich. Investment in specialist and supported housing, homelessness accommodation, empty homes and energy efficiency has improved options and outcomes for residents across the borough.
Accelerating the delivery of homes Bury needs
Bury needs to deliver an average of 452 new homes each year, a total of 9,486 homes over the emerging Local Plan period from 2022 to 2043. The evidence shows a particularly acute need for affordable housing, with a net annual shortfall of 1,017 affordable homes and over 2,000 households on the housing register. New supply should be predominantly family houses, especially two and three-bedroom homes, alongside affordable flats for younger people and key workers and a growing need for bungalows and level-access homes for an ageing population.
Long-term growth will be delivered through three major strategic allocations in the Places for Everyone plan, at Elton Reservoir, Walshaw and Simister, together providing over 6,300 homes in new, infrastructure-supported communities. The Council will accelerate delivery by prioritising brownfield sites, leading an Estate Renewal Task Force, strengthening partnerships with Registered Providers, developers and investors, maximising funding from Homes England and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and taking a more active planning and enabling role. A pipeline of 1,616 new homes are planned by 2030/31.
Town centres as engines of growth and opportunity
Our town centres are being repositioned as vibrant, mixed-use places where housing plays a central role. Bury Town Centre is the primary focus for housing-led regeneration, with more than 1,800 homes in the pipeline across key sites including Mill Gate, Pyramid Park and the Interchange. In Radcliffe, regeneration has moved from strategy to delivery, with more than 800 homes delivered or in the pipeline, including around 400 homes at the former East Lancashire Paper Mill. Prestwich will see 248 new homes as part of a £55.8 million transformation of the village centre, while plans for Whitefield and Ramsbottom support well-designed homes that strengthen each centre's character and vitality. The Northern Gateway, part of Atom Valley, will combine nationally significant employment development with around 200 new homes in Bury.
Council homes and neighbourhoods to be proud of
As the largest landlord in Bury, the Council is committed to homes that are safe, warm, well-managed and fit for the future. £60 million has been committed over three years to meet the Decent Homes Standard, with a further £17 million for sustainability improvements, guided by a comprehensive stock condition survey and a refreshed 30-year Housing Revenue Account Plan. The repairs and maintenance service is being comprehensively reviewed to deliver a more reliable, tenant-focused service with a robust response to damp and mould.
The Council will make the best use of its land and estates through infill development, redevelopment, and mixed-tenure schemes, raising the quality and design of council housing and the neighbourhoods around it. Tenants will have a stronger voice, with clearer routes for feedback to influence decisions, and housing will work more closely with adult social care and wider services to support residents, including a clear 'ageing well at home' offer.
Supporting people to live well and independently at home
Bury's population is ageing and more residents have complex needs. The evidence identifies a need for 4,458 additional specialist housing units by 2043, including extra care housing, supported living and residential care. The Council will develop a Specialist Housing Needs Assessment and a Local Supported Housing Strategy by March 2027 to plan provision for its priority groups, which include older people, people with learning disabilities, autistic people, people with mental health needs or physical disabilities, children in care and care leavers, young people, and survivors of domestic abuse.
The direction is a shift towards more independent, 'own front door' accommodation, including five new extra care schemes, smaller specialist schemes for people with complex needs, better use of technology enabled care, and accessible and adaptable homes as standard in new development. Support for care leavers is being expanded through new transitional accommodation and priority access to housing, and safe accommodation and coordinated support will be provided for survivors of domestic abuse.
Preventing homelessness and creating pathways to stability
Our ambition is that homelessness in Bury is rare, brief, and non-recurrent. Homelessness pressures have risen sharply since 2022, driven by the cost of living, rising private rents and the loss of private tenancies. A comprehensive Homelessness Review has been completed and will inform a new Homelessness Strategy from 2026, built around four pillars: strengthening prevention, increasing access to housing, providing safe and suitable accommodation, and reducing rough sleeping.
The Council will reduce reliance on costly and unsuitable temporary accommodation, particularly bed and breakfast, in favour of good-quality, self-contained temporary homes, and will increase move-on options through affordable housing supply, acquisitions and supported accommodation. Services will be person-centred and trauma-informed, shaped by lived experience and delivered in partnership.
Shaping a fair, safe and stable private rented sector
The private rented sector now houses 17.8% of Bury's households, more than double the share in 2001, and for many it is a long-term home. Rents have risen by 80 to 90% since 2010, and over a fifth of private rented homes are non-decent. The Council will take a balanced approach that supports responsible landlords while taking firm action against poor standards and management.
The Council is preparing for the Renters' Rights Act, which significantly strengthens tenant protections and local authority enforcement responsibilities, and is increasing enforcement capacity, including a dedicated Environmental Health Officer role and participation in the Greater Manchester enforcement apprenticeship scheme. Houses in Multiple Occupation will be better managed through a borough-wide Article 4 Direction and updated planning guidance, and the Council will explore the potential introduction of selective licensing to drive up standards in designated areas.
Creating sustainable, healthy, and thriving neighbourhoods
Good housing and strong neighbourhoods are fundamental to health and wellbeing. Through the Team Bury model and the Let's Do It! strategy, housing, health, care, and community services will work together to provide joined-up, early support. New development will be expected to contribute to healthy, connected communities, with access to services, green space, and active travel.
The Council will bring more of the borough's approximately 1,600 long-term empty homes back into use through earlier intervention, acquisitions, the Lease and Repair Scheme and enforcement. With around 70% of homes currently below Energy Performance Certificate band C, Bury will accelerate the transition to low-carbon homes through the Retrofit GM programme, the Warm Homes Local Grant, a whole-house retrofit approach in council housing, and plans for a district heat network in Bury Town Centre, supporting Greater Manchester's ambition to be carbon neutral by 2038. All new development in Bury will be net zero carbon in operation by 2028.
Delivering the strategy
The strategy will be delivered in a challenging financial context, so the Council will be focused, realistic and outcomes driven, prioritising activity where it has the greatest impact and working with partners across the public, private and voluntary sectors to maximise resources. A delivery plan will sit alongside the strategy, and progress will be monitored against twelve strategic outcomes covering housing delivery, affordable housing supply, housing mix and quality, private rented sector standards, empty homes, tenancy sustainment, homelessness, housing pathways, progress towards net zero, and the Council's performance as a landlord and system leader. Progress will be reported transparently, enabling the approach to adapt as circumstances change.
Have your say
This is a draft strategy, and we want to know what you think. The consultation runs from Thursday 13 August to Thursday 5 November. You can complete the online survey, email your views to housingstrategy@bury.gov.uk, or join our online events on:
- Monday 7 September 6pm – 7.30pm for all residents and stakeholders
- Tuesday 8 September 6pm – 7.30pm for those aged 35 and under.
To book a place, call our freephone number 0800 612 9133 or email lynne.shaw@arc4.co.uk. Easy read versions of the strategy and survey are available, and paper copies or other formats can be requested using the freephone number or email address above.