Labour MP Jonathan Brash Secures talks on Fair Funding, But Still No Guarantee of Extra Cash...

brash takes funding fight to whitehall as budget pressure grows

Children’s services crisis to be discussed in london as Hartlepool's financial clock ticks

20th Feb 2026

Hartlepool’s long-running battle for additional funding will now reportedly move to direct talks with central government after MP Jonathan Brash confirmed today that he's secured a ministerial meeting to press the case for support for the town’s crisis-hit children’s services.

The intervention follows days of mounting financial and political pressure on the borough council and came after the MP raised the issue personally with the Prime Minister, who has instructed the relevant Secretary of State to meet with local representatives. The development was said to have been formally acknowledged at the latest meeting of the full council held yesterday evening at Hartlepool's Civic Centre.

Mr Brash said the talks would focus on the escalating cost of children’s social care, the single biggest factor driving the Hartlepool borough Councils budget shortfall.

“This isn’t about politics or headlines, it’s about standing up for Hartlepool and our kids and refusing to let our town be ignored,” he said, pledging to continue lobbying ministers “until we get the support our town deserves”.

The meeting represents the most direct line yet to government since Hartlepool’s earlier request for a £3 million financial rescue package was rejected by ministers, a decision that left the council facing the prospect of either raising council tax, cutting services or finding alternative savings. However, despite the breakthrough in securing face-to-face talks, there's still no indication that any additional money will from the government will be forthcoming.

Government has already signalled its reluctance to provide further financial support to any local council in the country without evidence that the council is prepared to use its existing revenue-raising powers to close the budget gap, and the current financial settlement for local councils has been presented by ministers as final. That leaves Hartlepool in the position of having won a hearing at the highest levels of government, but without any firm commitment that the outcome will change the councils budget arithmetic.

Inside the Civic Centre, the news was seized upon by the Labour leadership as justification for its decision to defer a final council tax vote in yesterdays meeting in order to continue the fight for what it describes as fair funding.

Critics, however, warn that the talks amount to a political opportunity rather than a financial solution, pointing out that the council remains under a legal duty to set a balanced budget within weeks.

With the start of the new financial year fast approaching, the timetable for issuing council tax bills is already said to be under strain, and any delay in reaching a definitive funding position further narrows Hartlepool Borough Councils room for manoeuvre. The stakes are particularly high because the pressure on children’s services — driven by rising demand for placements and the cost of external provision — is not a one-off problem but a structural issue affecting councils across the country.

For Hartlepool, the meeting offers a chance to restate its case at the centre of power and to argue that the town’s level of need has not been properly reflected in national funding formulas. However if ministers feel that additional funding will only be used to merely prop up the Labour Run councils efforts to freeze household bills without any additional money going to childrens services, the meeting could prove to be fruitless..

For now, the promise of talks provides political momentum for the campaign — but not the financial certainty required to resolve the borough’s budget crisis.