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Until a month ago, Julie, a single mother with three children, was just barely making ends meet. But experiencing the first chill of winter in the UK, she found herself turning to her local community center in south London for help.
After running school most days he comes to the Oasis Centre, a “social living room” set up in the capital to help those struggling with their food and fuel bills. “I’ve never known my flat to be so cold,” she said.
With a weather front bringing widespread snow and temperatures as low as -15C to the UK this week, local councils and charities across the country are providing so-called “warm banks” to help families caught up in the rising cost of living crisis.
“Everyone who comes in will see it through their own lens. We don’t call it a hot center because it’s not just a hot center,” said Steve Chalk, a Baptist minister who founded Oasis Trust in 1985. The charity now operates in 36 communities across the UK and has given away over a hundred tonnes of food in the last six months.
As the war in Ukraine has caused energy prices to rise sharply, the UK government has moved to mitigate the impact on households. In October, the Treasury launched an energy support scheme that provided a £400 energy discount for all households and will cap energy bills at £2,500 this winter for typical households, rising to £3,000 in April.
However, for many people, these steps are not enough. Even with government support, some 6.7 million UK households are now in fuel poverty, according to estimates by National Energy Action, the pressure group – 2.2 million more than a year ago.

Matt Copeland, NEA’s head of policy and public affairs, said the figure is expected to rise further when the government lifts the cap on household energy prices from April. “It’s going to get worse,” he added. “It is already historic at 6.7mn. We think it is going to worsen to 8.4 million.”
Julie, a former primary school cook who prefers not to give her surname, spends more than 10 per cent of her net income on fuel, the NEA’s definition of fuel poverty, but is still waiting to receive her £400 rebate.
She says, like many others, she is facing a dark winter. “At the moment I’m definitely struggling compared to last year. Last year I was spending £50 a week on my electricity, now £30 lasts just two days.”
Heat hubs such as the Oasis Center have sprung up across the UK. In Brampton, Cumbria, where temperatures recently dipped to a low of -5C, an area was created in the town’s moot hall to enable residents to mingle, stay warm and charge their phones.
“It’s a place where people can have a hot drink and use free WiFi. There’s a toaster and a microwave,” said Council Clerk Alison Riddell. “Some visitors say there is no food at home and have to take biscuits and donations back with them.”
The number of people struggling with rising heat and living costs in the city of Birmingham has become so acute that the city council declared a cost of living crisis in September. Took £5mn from the Council’s contingency fund for new costs of the Livelihoods programme.
John Cotton, cabinet member of the Council for Equality, compares the scale of the challenge to dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. “We’ve created a really extensive network of what we call ‘warm welcome spaces’,” he said, adding that council buildings, community facilities, churches and mosques all offer shelter.

Kapas said the challenge was compounded by the severe scarcity of resources. Since 2010, local government budgets have faced real cuts of 30 percent following a decade of austerity cuts imposed after the 2008 financial crisis.
“Ten years of austerity and some quite brutal cuts to the welfare support system have created real problems for people.”
Shantanu Rajawat, council leader for the London borough of Hounslow – which now has 35 hotspots, including Brentford Football Club – said the government’s decision to issue one-year funding deals for local government had made it very difficult to meet long-term plans. Community needs.
“We want some certainty on our funding arrangements. . . . In the last few years, we’ve had a one-year funding settlement and that makes long-term planning very difficult.”
Back at the Oasis Center, where volunteers are restocking the community fridge with extra food that visitors can take home, they’re preparing for a busy winter ahead.
Another visitor, Barry, who is blind and also asked that his surname not be used, said he came to the oasis to seek warmth and a job. “I can’t even afford to care. I don’t put lights on at night. I can be fine, but when my friends come over they don’t like it.”
Additional reporting by Alastair Bailey
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