Another Closure Order Exposes Hartlepool’s Broken Housing System..

The property at Walpole Close, Pic Credit (Incidents on Teesside & County Durham)

Every closure order now bolsters the belief that we have a housing allocations system being operated in Hartlepool thats completely broken...

6th Sep 2025

Hartlepool Borough Council has once again paraded a “victory” after securing a closure order on a Thirteen Housing Group property in the Manor House Ward.

Yet beneath the self-congratulations lies the same uncomfortable truth: Hartlepool’s housing system, operated under the Hartlepool Homesearch Scheme, is fundamentally broken.

Our investigation into this system has already uncovered a process riddled with contradictions and bias. On one hand, tenants with long records of antisocial behaviour seem to slip through the cracks and secure housing with ease. On the other, applicants who have genuinely fallen on hard times find themselves shut out—disqualified from the register for years, punished for trivial issues, and faced with a flawed appeals process that has no independent oversight.

The case at 15 Walpole Road is the latest example. Neighbours endured over a year of misery: noise at all hours, drug activity, weapons on the street, and violent disorder. All of this played out in plain sight before the council finally acted. Had proper application checks and tenancy monitoring been in place, it is hard to believe this tenant would ever have been placed in social housing at all...

And who pays the price? Not Thirteen Group, Teesside’s so-called “social landlord” that treats fines and court orders as pocket change. Not Hartlepool Borough Council, who refuses to admit its system is broken. No—the taxpayer foots the bill, with around £2,000 in court costs from this single case alone. Costs which, in a perverse twist, will be added to the tenant’s debt and likely used to disqualify them from future housing applications.

This is the third version of a “choice-based lettings” scheme Hartlepool has unsuccessfully tried to run. Each time it has failed to do the one thing it was supposed to: and thats fairly and effectively manage hartlepool's housing stock, ensuring decent tenants are housed and bad ones weeded out. Instead, we see a system that does the exact opposite—rewarding the worst while punishing those who need a fair chance.

And make no mistake, this isn't an isolated incident either. Across Hartlepool and Teesside, Thirteen’s properties are repeatedly the subject of closure orders. It's become a pattern, not a singular problem case. Yet every press release from the council follows the same template: leaders congratulating themselves for “strong action,” whilst dodging responsibility for a system that enabled these tenants to be placed in the first place.

The truth is unavoidable. Hartlepool Borough Council’s Homesearch Scheme is not keeping communities safe. Thirteen Group’s role as landlord only compounds the damage. And ordinary, genuine applicants—those shut out of the system entirely—are the ones who suffer most.

Until Hartlepool Borough Council accepts responsibility for the systemic failures in its housing process, we will keep seeing the same headlines: another closure, another community scarred, another taxpayer bill—and still no justice for those waiting years for a safe, stable home.