Art galleries, museums and libraries across the UK are being earmarked to become “warm banks” to help people unable to heat their homes this winter.
As energy prices soar, councils including Birmingham, Bristol, Aberdeen and Glasgow are currently looking into creating networks of public spaces as refuges for people who will struggle to pay their electricity bills.
Birmingham, England’s biggest council serving 1.14m people, has pledged to “map out spaces across the city where people can go to keep warm”.
The Local Government Association, which represents councils in England, warned that while local authorities were doing “all they can”, “warm banks” were “not alternatives” to providing householders with “adequate resources” to make heating their homes affordable.
