More Than 500,000 People in UK Visited ‘Warm Rooms’ During 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, The Guardian reported.

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.