Cost of living crisis: Public spaces could become ‘warm banks’ this winter

Libraries, community centres and art galleries could become ‘warm banks’ where Britons struggling to heat their homes amid soaring energy bills shelter this winter.

Birmingham, Bristol, Dundee, Glasgow and Aberdeen are among the UK councils exploring the possibility of public spaces being made available for people unable to afford heating in their homes. 

Birmingham, England’s biggest council serving 1.14 million people, has become the latest announcing measures either providing or sign-posting the hubs, by pledging to ‘map out spaces across the city where people can go to keep warm’.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England, said while local authorities were doing ‘all they can’, ‘warm banks’ were ‘not alternatives’ to providing householders with ‘adequate resources’ to make heating their homes affordable.

This was backed by the charity Age UK, who said the ‘talk of warm banks shows how incredibly serious the challenge of keeping warm this winter looks set to be, especially for older people and anyone on a low income’. 

Caroline Abrahams, the charity’s director, said that while she welcomes any strategy being suggested to help older people amid the cost of living crisis, they should not be seen as a ‘substitute for effective government action’.

She said: ‘With prices continuing to sky-rocket, life is certainly not going to be easy for many older people over the next few months. Millions are already struggling to pay for basic items and with high inflation and energy prices soaring, many face a perilous winter.

‘Talk of warm banks shows how incredibly serious the challenge of keeping warm this winter looks set to be, especially for older people and anyone on a low income.

‘While we welcome any strategy being suggested to help older people withstand the cold, investing in existing infrastructure like day centres and lunch clubs, run by local Age UKs and others, and ensuring every older person can afford to heat their home, should be the top priorities in our view.

‘Warm banks may have a role to play this winter but they’re no substitute for effective Government action to help people manage their bills. That’s what we need to see, and quickly.’

The Government has said it will continue to ‘make sure that people have got the resources to heat their own home’.

Asked about plans for so-called ‘warm banks’ in libraries, community centres and art galleries, DCMS minister Matt Warman told LBC Radio: ‘Those are initiatives put forward by local councils that are for them.

‘What the Government has to do and has done up to this point and will continue to do in the future is make sure that people have got the resources to heat their own homes.

‘Those initiatives that are put forward, I think, will be welcome to some people. Of course they will be. But what the Government is doing and will continue to do is focusing on giving people the resources they need in their own homes, rather than having to leave them.’

He added: ‘Welcome though these initiatives might be for some people, they’re not going to be the only option. They shouldn’t be the only option… I’m confident that the package of help that’s there and the package of help… (from the next prime minister) will make real progress in that regard.’

Other councils including Southend, in Essex, Sheffield, in Yorkshire, and several in Nottinghamshire have already started mulling similar plans for either setting up, supporting or highlighting the locations of ‘warm banks’.

Although the idea of such spaces is not new, their existence was brought to a wider audience by consumer rights campaigner Martin Lewis, earlier this year.

In a tweet to to his 1.7 million followers in July, he said: ‘Can’t believe I’m writing this, but I wonder if this winter well need ‘warm banks’ the equivalent of ‘food banks’ where people who can’t afford heating are invited to spend their days at no cost with heating (eg libraries, public buildings)?’

Replying to Mr Lewis’s tweet, Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees said the city was ‘actively organising a city-wide network of warm places – we call them ‘Welcoming Places’ – for Bristol’.

Since then, it has also emerged councils across Scotland including Glasgow and Aberdeen have been considering setting up ‘warm banks’ by opening up public buildings, as first reported in the Daily Record.

Meanwhile in Birmingham, Cllr John Cotton, cabinet member at the Labour-run local authority, said: ‘Keeping warm will be a huge challenge for so many people, with the price of using domestic heating spiralling.

‘We are going to work with partners to map out spaces across the city where people can go to keep warm.

‘Whether that’s local community centres, places of worship or libraries, we want to help people to find places where they will be welcomed, free of charge.’

He added: ‘It should not be the case that people cannot afford to keep their homes warm, but that is the reality that we are facing here in Birmingham.’

Cllr Andrew Western, chair of the LGA’s resources board, said: ‘Councils and local partners will continue to do all they can to protect those on the lowest incomes against the rising costs of fuel, food, transport and other essentials.

‘As we enter the forthcoming winter months, councils are taking practical steps to support people in their community who need it the most.

‘These include the development of warm hubs in some areas as well other important initiatives that are aimed at both addressing immediate hardship and building longer-term financial resilience and wellbeing.’

He added: ‘Although councils are doing all they can to help residents, these schemes are not alternatives to ensuring people can afford to heat their homes through the winter months.

‘The mainstream welfare system should ensure people have sufficient means to meet true living costs and councils and local partners need adequate resources to provide targeted and effective crisis support alongside services which increase opportunity and lift people out of poverty for good.’ 

With the energy crisis worsening, the boss of Shell has said he does not think it will be limited to ‘just one winter’ and warned fuel could be rationed ‘for years’.

Ben van Beurden, chief executive of the energy giant, said he expected there to be ‘a number of winters where we have to somehow find solutions’ as a result of the cuts to Russian supplies. 

Speaking at a press conference in Norway on Monday, he said: ‘I do not think this crisis is going to be limited to just one winter.’

He also warned it ‘may well be that we have a number of winters where we have to somehow find solutions through efficiency savings, through rationing and through a very quick build-out of alternatives.’

Giving a bleak forecast, Mr van Beurden told reporters: ‘That this is going to somehow be easy, or over, is a fantasy we should put aside’. 

Last week, regulator Ofgem announced it was raising the energy price cap by 80 per cent in October, taking the average household’s gas and electricity bill to £3,549 per year. 

Bills are predicted to rise again to £5,400 in January and even further to £6,600 in spring according to forecasts from energy analysts Cornwall Insight.

Ofgem’s chief executive Jonathan Brearley warned of the hardship energy prices will cause this winter and urged the incoming prime minister and new Cabinet ‘to provide an additional and urgent response to continued surging energy prices’.

He also said that the gas price this winter was 15 times more than the cost two years ago.

The regulator said the increase reflected the continued rise in global wholesale gas prices, which began to surge as the pandemic eased, and had been driven still higher by Russia slowly switching off gas supplies to Europe.

Ofgem also warned that energy prices could get ‘significantly worse’ next year. The regulator said that some suppliers might start increasing the amount that direct debit customers pay before October 1, to spread out payments, but any money taken by suppliers will only ever be spent on supplying energy to households.

The rise of the energy price cap has led campaigners to warn that millions of people could face fuel poverty unless the Government gives more support with energy bills. 

It has also led to the emergence of the Don’t Pay UK campaign, a grassroot movement launched in summer 2022, which is aiming to get one million people to stop their energy direct debit from October.

However, Andy Burnham said on Tuesday that he does not support a movement calling on consumers to withhold payment for energy bills in protest against the rising cost of living.

The Greater Manchester Mayor told Sky News he understood why people were joining Don’t Pay UK but that ‘we have to live within the rule of law’.

‘At this stage it’s definitely a step I wouldn’t support. We’ve got to live within the rule of law. We’ve got to keep a country where people respect the rules and the way of doing things.

‘I understand why people are saying it but I wouldn’t in any way recommend that that’s the way people should go.

‘What we need is action to make things affordable for people, but I do feel that that kind of call will increase unless we see the scale of action that is going to be needed.’

The cost of living crisis has also been the focus of the Tory leadership contest, with both candidates making pledges to help struggling Britons.

Ms Truss has pledged to slash National Insurance and cut green levies on energy bills if she becomes prime minister, while she has also hinted at further support for hard-pressed Britons.

As well as her plan to introduce emergency measures to help families with soaring gas and electricity bills this winter, Ms Truss is also due to use her first days in office to approve a series of new oil and gas drilling licences in the North Sea.

In a bid to bolster the UK’s energy security, as many as 130 licences could be issued after recent meetings between ministers and oil and gas companies.

Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak has also vowed to spend billions more to support Britons through the cost-of-living crisis – if he becomes prime minister – as he acknowledged a ‘moral responsibility’ to offer extra help.

Ms Truss or Mr Sunak will be named as Tory leader on September 5 and the winner is expected to become prime minister the next day. 

Meanwhile, working from home could lead to household energy bills being stretched by an extra £2,500 each year, a new survey has revealed.

Experts suggest home workers will flock back to the office this winter to avoid the severe energy bills.

The average British worker is heading into the office one and a half days per week, meaning remote working will likely lead to an energy bill of £789 in January, compared to £580 for those going into work. 

Sarah Coles, of stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, described the ‘horrible scale’ of the energy price increase.

‘Even for those who consider themselves to be comfortable, this is a serious enough crisis that they’re going to need to find new solutions,’ she said.

‘People may have to reconsider how they use their heating, so instead of leaving it on all day they focus on trying to retain as much heat as possible in the rooms they’re using, through things like more drought-proofing.’