The post, published on Grimes’s Substack and subsequently to his Facebook and X accounts, said Durham County Council had received official notification of nearly 100 households being moved from London to the region in the past two years.
He said there were 10,000 people on the local authority’s social housing waiting list and only 3,000 homes became available each year.
“You don’t need a degree in advanced mathematics to see that the system is rigged against local people,” he wrote.
Grimes then suggested the Reform-led council’s proposed new social housing policy would fix the issue, even though the families being moved to the region were being put in private accommodation.
Grimes told the BBC there was “no stopping anybody” making applications for social housing in County Durham, though figures he provided suggested the majority of people on the waiting list already lived in the county.
He said in the blog the party’s proposed policy would prioritise veterans, people fleeing domestic abuse, and those in overcrowded homes, as well as those with urgent medical needs.