MORE than 20,000 properties in Burnley are being targeted in the town's biggest ever housing survey.

The homes are due to receive a postal survey this week as part of Burnley Borough Council's research into the housing market and housing needs.

The authority has commissioned the Northern Housing Consortium to carry out the Housing Needs and Market Assessment.

This assessment will provide the council with detailed knowledge of local housing markets that exist in different parts of the borough.

Survey forms are due to be posted out to more than half of the homes in Burnley and this, it is hoped, will give local people from every part of the borough the chance to let the council know what they feel about their home and the area in which they live.

The council has said it believes the information provided in the survey will help them bid for money from central government.

It will also help develop proposals for the Elevate programme, an initiative to transform the most deprived areas of East Lancashire. Burnley has almost 4,000 empty homes and has been included in the Elevate scheme.

Steve Tilly, the council's housing operations manager, said: "This is a really important piece of research that will help to shape the future of Burnley. The survey isn't just focusing on the areas in the most housing need.

"It is looking at the whole of the borough. It will identify the needs of the rural parts of the borough as well as the urban areas.

"We would like as many people as possible to fill in the form -- even if they don't think that they are in housing need -- so that we get as full a picture as possible of the local housing market."

Council officers said the information provided in the survey will be treated confidentially by the consultants. The whole of the survey will be carried out by post and no one from either the council or their consultants will visit people in their homes.