The Hartlepool Housing Paradox: Why is Jonathan Brash Ignoring the 12% Abandoned by The Hartlepool Homesearch Scandal?
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Abandoned by the Borough: The Human Cost of The Hartlepool Homesearch Blacklist that Hartlepool's Labour MP refuses to talk about. .
21st Feb 2026
For months, Hartlepool Labour MP Jonathan Brash has dominated local headlines with his crusade against southern councils in what he claims are councils "dumping" families in Hartlepool. The rhetoric is sharp, his indignation loud, and his target easy. But while Mr. Brash keeps his eyes fixed on the taxis arriving from the south, he's rather conveniently turned a blind eye to the 327 local families—roughly 12.4% of Hartlepool Borough Councils housing register—who've been systematically disqualified from the Hartlepool Homesearch scheme since 2022.
The irony's stark as it is tragic. Brash decries the "unfair burden" on local services, yet the Labour MP for Hartlepool remains remarkably quiet about the "revenge disqualifications" and bureaucratic blacklisting that's forcing Hartlepool’s own sons and daughters out of their hometown.
The Invisible Exodus Brash Doesn't Want to Talk About !
While the MP campaigns against "shipping people in," he's failed to address the forced exodus of locals. When Hartlepool Homesearch labels an applicant "non-qualifying"—often for historic debts or for the "crime" of challenging a housing provider like Thirteen Group—where does he think they go?
They don’t disappear. They're pushed into the hands of rogue private landlords, forced into unsuitable, damp, or sometimes overcrowded housing, or, most damningly, forced to move to other local authority areas to find a roof over their heads because Hartlepool Borough Council has washed their hands of them, largely for reasons seemingly beyond the applicants control.
So why is Jonathan Brash not fighting for the 12%? Why is there no "tough letter" to the Borough Council demanding to know how many Hartlepudlians have been exiled from their own borough because the Hartlepool Homesearch criteria is deliberately rigged against the vulnerable?
By focusing entirely on out-of-area placements, Brash has found himself a perfect political shield, and another Political 'Bandwagon' to jump on. It is far easier to blame a council in London or Essex than it is to hold his own Hartlepool Borough Council or its affiliated local housing giants to account for their own failings.
The "revenge disqualification" scandal—where disabled residents have allegedly been banned from accessing the council housing register after raising legal challenges—is clearly a stain on this town’s social contract. Yet, rather than demanding a transparent audit of why 1 in 8 local applicants are now being rejected, our MP is busy counting taxis on the A19.
The True Cost of Silence
Every time a local family is disqualified for a minor issue, while fleeing domestic violence or may have fallen on hard times due to managing a disability, the system fails... When those people are forced to move to places such as Stockton, Durham, or even further afield just to be housed, Hartlepool loses its community fabric. Mr. Brash claims he wants to stop Hartlepool from being a "dumping ground," for other local councils, but by ignoring the 12% of disqualified locals on Hartlepool's Own Housing Register, he's effectively treating his own constituents like disposable data points.
It's time Brash stopped looking for external scapegoats and started looking a bit more inward towards his own constituency at the gatekeepers of the failed Hartlepool Homesearch Scheme & the scores of applicants failed by it. Brash cannot claim to stand up for "local people" while hundreds of his own constituents have been quietly shown the door.
