On The Breadline: Arts factory that’s become a social network

Team effort: staff and volunteers outside the community centre in South Wales

(Picture: ES Composite)

For 63-year-old Brian Preston, the cost of living crisis is unlike anything he’s experienced. He lives alone in Wales where, because of soaring food and energybills, he fears turning on his cooker. At home he eats only tinned food, cold sardines and beans, unable to afford to cook regular hot meals.

Mr Preston no longer has a washing machine and cleans his clothes in his bath and drip-dries them on a clothes horse. “We’re going back to Victorian times,” he said. “I can’t afford to eat hot food. I can’t afford to put the gas or electricity on. I’m eating cold beans, sardines. It’s very rare I put my cooker on. It’s got that bad.”