"When Fatma Mustafa began attending Walworth Living Room, a community project in south London, a few years ago, she began to feel like it was her second home. The registered warm space is designed to feel like a living room: comfy sofas, a communal table, activities and food in a warm environment. Mustafa, 48, says that on universal credit (UC) it is hard to cover bills and easy to fall into debt."
"Attending three days a week, she says, cuts costs on energy and groceries. She has a pay-as-you-go energy meter, which is increasingly just eating my money away, she says. And you can have food here, and then at least you're full up for the day. But more than cost of living help, Mustafa says, the people she has met here have become like my family and helped her through painful times."
"The average annual bill for typical gas and electricity consumption under the energy price cap is now 1,755, 44% higher than winter 2021-22. Fatma Mustafa. The people at Walworth Living Room have become like my family', she says. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian Over that time, a trend has emerged that has gone largely unnoticed: since 2022 community warm banks or warm spaces have sprung up right across the UK."
Walworth Living Room is a registered warm space in south London designed to feel like a living room, offering food, activities and warmth. Regular attendees reduce energy and grocery costs; one attendee on universal credit uses the space three days a week and relies on pay-as-you-go energy meters that drain limited funds. Warm spaces have proliferated nationwide since 2022, rising from about 4,000 to almost 6,000 registered hubs by 2025-26. Volunteers and anti-poverty charities express concern that warm spaces may become an entrenched austerity-era substitute for government responsibility, similar to the earlier rise of food banks.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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