More than 500,000 people in UK visited ‘warm rooms’ during the winter
More than half a million people visited community “warm rooms” to escape freezing homes and escalating poverty during the winter, according to the first audit of the impact of these potent symbols of the UK’s cost of living crisis.
Warm space projects sprang up in their thousands across the UK in the autumn, as charities, libraries and faith groups responded to soaring energy poverty by opening venues to provide cash strapped people with warmth, free food and a cup of tea.
A survey by the Warm Welcome campaign, a UK-wide network of over 4,200 warm spaces, suggests many successfully provided their visitors with a measure of respite from their problems – but not necessarily the problem the projects had planned for.
Most visitors welcomed the warmth; they were struggling financially, and saved money on heating and food, wifi costs and children’s activities.
But while respite from poverty was important, the survey found, it was secondary to warm rooms’ other main if perhaps unforeseen benefit: challenging the social blight of loneliness.
“The biggest difference has been in reducing social isolation,” said one survey respondent. “We found those who were struggling with the cost of living crisis in financial terms didn’t particularly access us — they used the nearby foodbank more. It was the escape from an empty house that people found most gratifying about our warm space.”
The greatest impact of warm rooms, the survey found, was in providing a sense of community and tackling loneliness in a safe and welcoming space. Frequent visitors reported positive improvements in their mental health, social wellbeing, and sense of purpose. “It’s helped me cope with the hard times,” one respondent said.
“Social contact is as important as food and
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