Hang Your Head in Shame: HBC Director awarded CBE responsible for failure that seen nearly 70 applicants lose vital financial support...
- teessidetoday
- Jun 14
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 15
HBC Director who trousers £139k of public funds given CBE in the Kings Birthday Honours List, despite a departmental blunder nearly six years ago which seen almost 70 vulnerable applicants losing out on vital financial support, leaving some homeless...
14th June 2025
A senior director at Hartlepool Borough Council has sparked public fury after being handed a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) award in the King’s Birthday Honours List – despite previously overseeing one of the most disgraceful scandals to hit the troubled local council in recent memory.
Ms Robinson, who currently trousers an eye-watering £139,000 a year of taxpayers’ money, was head of the council department responsible for administering Discretionary Housing Payments – a vital financial support intended to prevent vulnerable residents from falling into homelessness. But back in 2019, nearly 70 vulnerable claimants were left high and dry after Robinson’s team wrongly rejected their applications, operating an illegal ‘blanket ban’ policy that was later ruled as severe maladministration by the Local Government Ombudsman.
The ruling came after a formal complaint was submitted to the Ombudsman by a member of the public backed by Hartlepool Borough Council Exposed – the investigation revealed the council had improperly fettered its discretion, effectively deciding in advance that anyone whose rent exceeded the Local Housing Allowance Rate wouldn't be eligible for DHP support. The result? Dozens of households pushed to the brink – and at least four applicants who were victims of the blunder made homeless because of Robinson's Incompetence.
Fast forward to 2025, and it seems the 'Dodgy Directors' failures appear to not only have been erased from the history books, but now rewarded where, As one furious local put it:
“You couldn’t make it up. People lost their homes under her watch – and now she’s getting a CBE?”
The full Ombudsman ruling, which appears to have been 'erased' from the website (LGO Case Ref: 18 016 70) was damning. In the case of ‘Mr X,’ it found:
The Council had failed to properly assess the applicants needs.
HBC Operated a blanket policy, wrongly blocking applicants whose rent was too high.
Created a system likely to cause uncertainty, frustration, and systemic harm to dozens more claimants...With HBC ordered to reassess the affected applications, issue compensation to those effected, and rewrite its Discretionary Housing Payments policy.
Despite this, its claimed no clear evidence has ever emerged that the wrongly denied applicants ever received the compensation they were owed, with the full LGO report appearing to have disappeared from the ombudsman's public disclosures, and attempts to follow this up met with a wall of silence.
Commenting on the controversial honour, James Barker, Editor of HBC Exposed, who was involved in the investigation against Hartlepool Borough Council back in 2019, said:
“This is everything that’s wrong with Britain today. Overpaid, un-elected council officials being rewarded for failure whilst local households suffer the consequences of their poor decision making. Ms Robinson sits in her ivory tower, hoovering up public cash, and now gets a CBE for services to… what, exactly? Wrecking peoples lives?”
Mr Barker continued:
“One of our very first investigations exposed Sally Robinson for her role in this scandal – and instead of accountability, she’s was given a promotion, handed a pay rise, protected and now honoured. It’s a slap in the face to every taxpayer, every family who lost out.”
The awarding of this CBE raises serious questions about how public honours are being handed out, and whether performance, accountability, or even basic decency factor into the selection process at all.
In Hartlepool, where trust in the council is already at rock bottom, this is just another reminder that failure pays – if you’re at the top.
