LONDON (The National) – People in the UK are using ‘warm banks’ as they struggle to heat their homes amid a cost of living crisis.
More than 3,200 of the warm rooms, run by local authorities and charities, have been set up across the country, according to the Warm Welcome Campaign, UK Daily News reported.
Many of them are a third or even half full and offer a variety of services from hot tea to a place to work.
Daniel Andrews, partnerships manager at Wandsworth Libraries, said that since becoming a warm bank, the site has seen an increase in traffic.
“Our job is to provide a warm, safe space, but also to offer advice to people who need it,” Andrews told The National.
“Our Warm Spaces project is about opening libraries for longer hours in the New Year to help those experiencing the cost of living crisis, giving them a safe, warm place to come down to enjoy activities and exchange with other people,” he added.
He said the library will monitor visitor numbers in the coming days.
“The weather has just started to get really cold,” he said.
“So of course we’re going to monitor it as we continue with the temperature drop to see if people are coming down in larger numbers, if they’re increasing the time in the library and if they’re asking our staff for more help at that time.”
Save the Children said 194 out of 355 councils in England and Wales were directly involved with or supported groups to open warm rooms this winter.
“Families shouldn’t be in a position where they’re wracking their brains about turning on the heat when it’s freezing,” said Becca Lyon, head of child poverty at the charity.
“Parents have told us they will risk going into debt to keep their kids warm,” Lyon added.
“We are here because it is very cold outside and there is no place to stay with a small child,” a parent at Wandsworth Library said.
It comes as forecasters warn that temperatures will drop across the UK over the weekend, with warnings of lows of minus 10C and up to 10cm of snow in London.
Snow is forecast for Scotland and South East England.
The Met Office said the conditions could result in travel disruption, particularly Monday morning, and a low chance of some rural communities being cut off, along with the possibility of power outages and cellphone coverage being hit.
Britain’s Health Security Agency issued a level three cold-weather alert for England through Friday, after extending Monday’s alert.
Many UK organizations have cautioned that thousands of people with low incomes are at risk during the extreme low temperatures hitting the UK, as average energy bills are twice as higher than they were this time last year.
According to YouGov’s newly released data, only one in six Britons (18 percent) said that they had the heating on and that it was both as hot as they like and on for as long as they like.