In Britain, ‘warm hubs’ emerge to beat soaring energy costs
Thousands of warm hubs have sprouted across Britain as high energy bills fuel a cost-of-living crisis
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, England (AP) — On a blustery late-winter day in Shakespeare’s birthplace, the foyer of the Other Place theater is a cozy refuge. Visitors are having meetings over coffee, checking emails, writing poetry, learning to sew.
It looks and feels like an arty café in the pictureque streets of Stratford-upon-Avon, but it’s a “warm hub” set up by the Royal Shakespeare Company drama troupe to welcome people struggling to heat their homes because of sky-high energy prices.
Warm hubs have sprouted across Britain by the thousands this winter as soaring food and energy prices drive millions to turn down the thermostat or skimp on hot meals. Research by the opposition Labour Party counted almost 13,000 such hubs, funded by a mix of charities, community groups and the government and nestled in libraries, churches, community centers and even a tearoom at King Charles III's Highgrove country estate.
Wendy Freeman, an artist, writer and seventh-generation Stratfordian, heard about the RSC’s warm hub from a friend. She lives in “a tiny house with no central heating” and relies on a coal fire for warmth. Like many, she has cut back in response to the cost-of-living crisis driven by the highest inflation since the 1980s.
