Warmbanks.org website creator plots every UK warm bank to help people in 'desperate' need

IT developer from Norwich Jason Baldry who has created a website listing warm banks across the UK in an attempt to help people tackle the "desperate" cost-of-living crisis and stay warm this winter. Credit: Jason Baldry
The warm banks scheme aims to help people cutting back on their heating costs Credit: PA images

An IT developer has created a website listing warm banks across the UK in an attempt to help people tackle the "desperate" cost-of-living crisis and stay warm this winter.

Jason Baldry, 35, who works as the head of creative and IT for St Thomas' Church in Norwich, set up the website in the summer after growing concerned there was no such resource available.

Warm banks are places with heating where people can go to keep warm if they are struggling to afford to heat their homes.

In his spare time, Mr Baldry, from Norwich, created WarmSpaces.org - a website where anyone running a warm bank across the UK can register and Mr Baldry will add them to his map.

"There were these headlines coming out about the cost-of-living crisis and energy prices. We could see that something was on the horizon.

"People started signing up fairly slowly and then word spread. We're over 1,000 listings on the map now and they're still coming in thick and fast."

Jason Baldry has won a number of awards for his digital work Credit: Norwich Network

He said he was surprised and unprepared for just how popular the website has become, particularly after temperatures fell across the UK last week.

"As soon as that temperature dropped we saw a big spike in traffic," Mr Baldry said.

"I'm getting quite a lot of emails from people sort of saying 'Help!'. I was not quite ready for that.

"They're genuinely just crying out for help saying, 'I'm on benefits. I can't afford to heat my house. What do I do?'

"I have to sort of turn around and say this is signposting, I'm sorry. This is loads of different organisations that hopefully are coming together to create this conglomeration of pins on a map.

"And there are other organisations that are specifically helping to resource people running warm spaces.

"The takeaway is I am just getting the tiniest tip of an iceberg of communication from those who just don't know where to turn next and it's hard for me to even suggest what to do - it's a desperate time at the moment."

Mr Baldry maintains the website with a few friends and said he spends most nights adding new warm banks to the map.

"It takes about a minute to fill in the form, maybe not even that," he said.

"So if they're running a warm space, they can put the details in there, or the name of it, the time of the week that it runs, time of the day, and then what sort of features are available at the warm space."

Mr Baldry was keen to point out that he did not want to normalise warm banks but that he wanted to do something positive to help people out.

"I think there's a danger that we go a few winters and energy prices stay as they are and it's like this is normal. This cannot be normal. This cannot be what we accept."