Energy & Keeping Warm

A MESSAGE FROM MARTIN LEWIS

In early July 2022, while the sun was blazing, I was sitting at my desk, doing some numbers, starting to feel overcome with a sense of dread about the coming winter. It looked like the
price cap rates for energy, which most of us pay, would be nearly doubling, leaving possibly 100,000s with the now almost cliched choice between heating and eating.

While mulling, I tweeted, ‘Can’t believe I’m writing this, but I wonder if this winter we’ll need ‘warm banks’, the equivalent of ‘food banks’ where people who can’t afford heating are
invited to spend their days, at no cost, with heating (e.g. in libraries, public buildings, etc.)’

I wasn’t the only one thinking it. I was both saddened and gladdened to quickly hear from a few councils and libraries already planning to do just that, as well as many organisations who wanted to help, but were asking how to do it.

This guide is the culmination of that. I asked CILIP to research and collate best practice information, on how to do it, and I am delighted that they accepted the commission. It’s not just for libraries, it’s for any organisation wanting to set up a warm space (the name has rightly changed too, a warm space is a far more approachable place than a warm bank). I do hope you find it useful.

Of course, warm spaces are far from a panacea, not everyone will be able to get to warm spaces, not everyone will want to, and people will still need to heat their homes sometimes.
Yet I think they will turn out to be crucial extra help to get a decent number of vulnerable people through the winter.

And while we now have the energy price guarantee, which has thankfully substantially limited the energy price rises this coming winter, on average, rates are still roughly double those of last winter. So, help is still very much needed.

Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert
October 2022