BURY'S 9,000 council tenants face an anxious delay in finding out the future of their homes.

Housing bosses are to defer choosing their favoured option by a month, in what is the most important decision ever concerning the borough's local authority homes.

Months of talks have been taking place over which one of four possibilities would be put to residents for their views.

The options are: selling off houses; keeping the status quo; creating an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO); or seeking money from the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) for selected areas.

The more radical changes are on the agenda because the council faces a cash shortage for investment in the coming years: a quarter of its houses do not meet the Government's decent homes standard. Any sell-off would depend on tenants approving it through a ballot.

A preferred option, as recommended by a special project board including tenants' representatives, was to be presented at next Wednesday's (June 11) executive. But members are being asked to delay a decision until July 9.

Tenants groups are worried that the timescale is too short, because an independent tenant advisor had not been appointed until late May.

Once a preferred option is chosen in July, three months of consultation will be held before a final decision is made in October. Officers insist that the delay will not seriously affect the talks.