More than 500,000 people in UK visited ‘warm rooms’ during the winter

Exclusive: First audit of spaces reveals people visited to due to loneliness as well as to keep warm

More than half a million people visited community warm rooms" to escape freezing homes and escalating poverty during the winter, according to the first audit of the impact of these potent symbols of the UK's cost of living crisis.

Warm space projects sprang up in their thousands across the UK in the autumn, as charities, libraries and faith groups responded to soaring energy poverty by opening venues to provide cash strapped people with warmth, free food and a cup of tea.