From only 200 heating hubs when the Warm Welcome project kicked off three months ago and just 1,900 at the end of October , there are today 5,700 – 3,600 of which are already fully operational.
And these spaces, which offer not just the warmth of a heated room but the warm hand of friendship and support, now join community kitchens, food banks and all sorts of other banks – clothes, bedding, toiletries – as our last line of defence against winter destitution.
The speed at which an idea, first pushed last summer by Bishop of Durham Paul Butler and Good Faith Partnership’s David Barclay, has with the Daily Mirror’s help turned into a vibrant movement.
And I am proud that in Fife, where I live, church halls and libraries are opening up to heat the cold, give food to the hungry and comfort the isolated.
But more help is needed.
A Co-op Group appeal is targeting £1million to match-fund each new space to the tune of £3,000.
The Welsh Government has given £1million to set up warm spaces and half of England’s councils back them – all demonstrations of the strength and resilience of our country, a Britain that works best when it works together.
But charities, however generous, can never do enough. We need a Government as caring as the people they rule over.
