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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Patrick Butler Social policy editor

More than 500,000 people in UK visited ‘warm rooms’ during the winter

Gainsborough community library in Ipswich, where a warm bank and free tea and coffee cafe opened last year.
Gainsborough community library in Ipswich, where a warm bank and free tea and coffee cafe opened last year. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

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.

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