Firm Behind Major Hartlepool Housing Plans Enters Liquidation..

Acland Homes, with its head offices based in Hartlepool has gone into liquidation

Failed Bid to Transform a Landmark Hotel in Seaton Carew Behind the Developer’s Collapse the Teesside & Durham Post understands.

14th April 2026

Updated 23rd April 2026

A Hartlepool property company which had been behind a stalled redevelopment plan for the former Staincliffe Hotel has entered a creditors’ voluntary liquidation according to documents seen by the Teesside & Durham Post.

ACLAND HOMES LTD, was placed into liquidation on the 2nd of April 2026, with Joint liquidators Ian James Royle and David Adam Broadbent of BTG Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP in Stockton managing the companies affairs..

The Staincliffe Hotel in Hartlepool was recently sold to a local charity who are now re-developing the building

The firm was familiar to many readers living in Hartlepool because of its involvement with derelict Staincliffe Hotel in Seaton Carew.

Acland Homes bought the 21-bedroom former hotel in July 2023 and had put forward plans to redevelop the site for housing. The company said a proposed scheme for 35 apartments had been finalised and was ready to be submitted to Hartlepool borough Council for planning permission, however the plans were met with considerable opposition from members of the local community after learning the former hotel which is reportedly not a listed building was to be demolished.

In 2024, Managing director Stephen Litherland then warned the project had hit difficulties after what was described as a 'change in circumstances' involving one of the investors backing the re-development scheme. At that stage, the company said it was left with two options: find fresh funding or sell the site.

That sale later happened, when in June 2025, it was reported the Staincliffe had been bought by the newly-formed charity Johnson Mcclurg Amateur Sport Foundation, ending Acland Homes’ plans to demolish the building and replacing it with apartments. The foundation said it intended to renovate the prominent seafront site and turn it into a training and administrative centre to support youth amateur sport in the town.

Companies House records show ACLAND HOMES LTD was incorporated on 7 June 2018 and gave its registered office as Maritime House on The Hartlepool Marina, however the liquidation marks a significant development for a company that had been linked to one of Hartlepool’s most closely-watched regeneration sites.

The Teesside & Durham Post understands that plans are already said to be moving forward for the Staincliffe Hotel to be brought back into use as part of the charitable organisations plans to restore the building, with an application for planning permission for a change of use of the former hotel likely to be submitted sometime soon.