Farmyard Warm Room

> Anna Louise Claydon visits a farm in Lowestoft which is opening up a barn as a warm room this winter. Pathways Care Farm was once part of 130 acres of arable land. It's now just thirteen acres tucked away at the back of a housing estate. The farm gives vulnerable people the opportunity to learn through hands-on farming activities - including planting, cultivation, building restoration, animal husbandry and the basics of machinery maintenance. This winter, its doors have opened to the public for the first time. In 2020, director Geoff Stevens converted what used to be the coldest building on the farm into a fully insulated space with a kitchen and a log burner, in the hope of opening it as a cafe after the pandemic. Little did he know that he'd just created a community space for a problem he didn't yet know was coming: the cost of living crisis.

> Anna Louise joins Geoff by the fire to find out more about the new farmyard warm room. She finds members of the team out with the animals and hears how working on the farm has transformed their lives and helped them to re-build after difficult experiences. She also meets farmer Geoffrey Cooper, to hear about the original farm before most of the land was sold off for housing. He tells Anna Louise about his memories of working on the land with his father decades ago.

> Presented and produced by Anna Louise Claydon

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001gwsm

What's going on in the UK?

> The cost of living has been increasing across the UK since early 2021. The annual rate of inflation reached 11.1% in October 2022, a 41-year high, before easing to 10.7% in November 2022. High inflation affects the affordability of goods and services for households.

> Consumer goods and energy prices pushing inflation higher

> Consumer prices, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), were 10.7% higher in November 2022 than a year before.

> Increases in the costs of consumer goods, underpinned by strong demand from consumers and supply chain bottlenecks, have been factors causing rising inflation. Food prices have also been rising sharply over the past year.

> Another important driver of inflation is energy prices, with household energy tariffs and petrol costs increasing. From November 2021 to November 2022, domestic gas prices increased by 129% and domestic electricity prices by 65%. Gas prices increased to record levels after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and continued to rise during much of 2022 due to cuts in Russian supply. Electricity prices are linked to gas prices and have followed a similar trend.

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https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9428/

> Anti-poverty campaigners have warned the rise of “warm banks” over the winter is not a sustainable solution to the cost-of-living crisis and should not become normalised as food banks have.

> Warm banks or “warm spaces” – heated public spaces where people who cannot afford to heat their homes can go to warm up – are set to become a regular feature on Britain’s high streets as millions struggle with rising energy bills and the cost-of-living crisis.

> Just as community food banks have been set up to take donations and hand out emergency supplies to low-income families and individuals, warm banks “will give those unable to afford the exorbitant cost of home heating somewhere to go once the weather turns”, said The Independent. “Libraries, art galleries, community centres and places of worship could all be used in this way, giving people some respite from the cold,” the paper added.

[...]

https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/society/958436/warm-banks-a-worrying-winter-necessity