Heywood & Middleton is something of a curiosity; a constituency with scope for all three political persuasions, yet one which has tended to favour Labour. Jim Dobbinís 1997 majority of 17,542 votes, more than twice his 1992 margin, disguises pockets of natural resistance for the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
This is a well balanced seat; for every affluent ward that features private and well-to-do housing estates, such as South which is home to Alkrington Garden Village, there are wards such as West and Central which consist of the massive and troubled Langley Council Estate.
Situated in the Greater Manchester borough of Rochdale, the seatís two major population centres are the towns featured in its name. Between Manchester and Rochdale, both used to be heavily reliant upon textiles but have now undergone industrial diversification. Engineering, plastics and chemicals are the important industries these days, although the workforce is fairly evenly split between those in manual and non-manual jobs.
Housing is varied, comprising the odd mansion in Norden, middle-class suburbs like Casleton, and council estates such as Langley in Middleton.