Unaffordable heating bills force Britons to ‘warm banks’

The 52-year-old, who works as a healthcare assistant in Britain’s National Health Service, is among those who are turning to ‘warm banks’—designated spaces where people can go if they cannot afford to turn on their heating at home

Every morning on her days off, Mary Obomese wraps up in her winter coat and heads to Woolwich Centre Library in London, where she spends two hours on the computer and keeps herself warm.

The 52-year-old, who works as a healthcare assistant in Britain’s National Health Service, is among those who are turning to ‘warm banks’—designated spaces where people can go if they cannot afford to turn on their heating at home.

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The war in Ukraine has pushed natural gas prices up sharply, exacerbating a cost-of-living crisis in Britain, where inflation rates are among the highest in the developed world. Obomese, who lives in a council flat and earns about 1,500 pounds ($1,828) per month, is the main earner in her family, with her two children still in education and her husband working as a freelance journalist. When they get cold, Obomese said, they wrap up in their coats or sit on the sofa with blankets.

Even though warm banks are providing a refuge for those otherwise trapped in cold homes, library manager Amy Jackson says there is still a stigma attached. “I think a lot of people are kind of, unfortunately, embarrassed and a bit ashamed to admit that they’re struggling. So promoting our clubs and our warm spaces as different things really kind of makes it more approachable for them.”

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