Calls for Council Housing Scheme to Be Scrapped Amidst Claims of Unfairness..

Council Choice Based Lettings Scheme 'Hartlepool Homesearch', branded “a complete failure”, after damming evidence exposing how adapted disabled properties are being ‘gifted’ to applicants with no housing need is found....

10th October 2025

Hartlepool Borough Council’s flagship housing allocations system — Hartlepool Homesearch — is facing calls to be scrapped, following explosive revelations suggesting a number of adapted homes for disabled residents have being gifted to applicants with no housing priority need whatsoever.

The Teesside & Durham Post has uncovered what whistleblowers describe as “a corrupt and broken system,” accusing Hartlepool Borough Council of manipulating the housing allocations system and shutting out those the scheme was originally designed to protect.

At the centre of the growing scandal lies Hartlepool Homesearch, the Council’s so-called “Choice-Based Lettings” system, which critics say has spiralled into chaos.

According to multiple reports, adapted bungalows — purpose-built for disabled or medically vulnerable residents — are being handed to low-priority applicants, while those with urgent medical needs are left waiting for years in unsuitable accommodation.

Disabled applicants 'locked out' and forgotten...

Theres evidence to show the scheme is pushing high need disabled applicants further & further down the waiting list

The investigation reveals that disabled applicants are effectively being blocked from bidding on suitable properties if the adaptations don’t “exactly match” their medical needs — a bureaucratic technicality that has left some homes empty for months, even as wheelchair users and the severely disabled remain stuck in inaccessible housing.

One shocking case uncovered in our report involved an adapted bungalow left vacant for nearly three months amid a dispute over allocation fairness. Despite being urgently needed & the applicant having Band 1 Status on the housing provider Home Group's own waiting list, it was eventually handed to a Band 4 applicant by Hartlepool Borough Council— the lowest possible priority — while a Band 1 medical priority applicant was rejected simply because they were registered directly with Home Group, not with Hartlepool Homesearch....

The Home Group connection

Home Group Ltd is said to be one of the housing firms at the centre of the controversy following claims they have scores of disabled applicants waiting to be rehoused...

The controversy deepens after revelations claiming a backroom agreement between Home Group Ltd and Hartlepool Borough Council is funnelling nearly all of Home Group’s adapted and high-demand properties exclusively through the council’s Hartlepool Homesearch platform.

The move, done in secret by the two organisations effectively cuts off hundreds of applicants who've spent years waiting directly with Home Group — many of whom were never informed that they'd been excluded from being offered a suitable property and would now have to start their applications again from scratch via the council’s opaque system.

“Its a disgrace,” said one long-time applicant. “People who've waited years, often because of disability or medical needs, have been erased from the system overnight. Meanwhile, low-priority cases are walking straight into homes they don’t even need.”

Who are Band 4 applicants?

Its been found some 'Non-Priority' applicants have been handed the keys to properties they wouldn't otherwise be allowed to bid on...

The latest report sheds further light on what “Band 4” actually means under the council’s own Homesearch policy — and why the allocations scheme has caused such outrage.

According to Hartlepool Borough Council’s official policy, Band 4 includes:

• People whose current home is already adequate for their needs

• People who have refused reasonable housing offers

• People with housing-related debt or rent arrears

• People with recent unspent convictions or a history of anti-social behaviour

• People with no local connection to Hartlepool

  
  

In other words, Band 4 applicants are those with little or no housing need at all, fuelling increasing anger being directed at Hartlepool Borough Council for handing over adapted homes meant for disabled residents to people in Band 4, while medically urgent cases in Band 1 are being ignored or told to reapply?

Public trust in the scheme has collapsed..

The scheme is viewed by many to be simply littered with corruption...

The revelations have reignited public anger, prompting renewed calls for the entire Homesearch system to be scrapped, with critics claiming the scheme has become “a politically convenient illusion of fairness” — a system so riddled with incompetence and favouritism that it actively punishes the most vulnerable residents in Hartlepool.

The Teesside & Durham Post reports that Hartlepool Borough Council has repeatedly refused to comment or justify these shocking allocation decisions, while public confidence in the system — now on its third version in 15 years — continues to collapse.

After more than a decade of controversy, Hartlepool Homesearch is now facing its toughest test yet. With disabled residents left behind, properties sitting empty, and a trail of broken promises, many now say the time has come for the system to be scrapped altogether.

Whether the Council or the town’s MP will act remains to be seen — but one thing is certain: the people of Hartlepool have completely lost faith in a housing system that was supposed to protect them, not betray them.