Warm Spaces

Introduction

Over the past three years Tewkesbury Borough Council has been able to fund community venues to offer warm spaces during the winter months.

A Warm Space is a place where anyone can go to feel safe, warm, and welcome. It’s free to use and open to everyone. People can come in to rest, chat, enjoy activities, or in some spaces have a snack or meal.

These spaces help people who might feel lonely or who need help staying warm in the winter. They are friendly places where everyone is treated kindly. Warm spaces can also help people find support with making contact with others who can help them.

The grant programme for community venues for winter 2025-2026 closed on 22 November 2025. This programme will reopen in Summer 2026 for winter 2026-2027.

A Warm Space

A Warm Space is a free, warm, welcoming, and safe place, which all members of the community can access. You do not need to identify your venue as a Warm Space by name as we understand this can cause some stigma. Warm Spaces should be open to everyone in the community.

Feedback from the past three years is that warm, welcoming spaces are important in supporting residents both with the cost of living crisis and also in tackling loneliness.

Our Warm Spaces charter

Warm Spaces must:

Be free
Be heated
Offer a warm welcome
Treat people equally and with dignity and respect
Provide a safe space
Be non-judgemental
Be a not-for-profit community venue
Abide by the required safeguarding policies and food hygiene guidance
Not serve alcohol in the venue whilst it is operating as a Warm Space.

Funding decisions for community venues

This programme had limited funding to distribute and all applications were assessed and funding allocated on the basis of:

evidenced need for the Warm Space in tackling the cost of living crisis and/or loneliness
realistic and reasonable budgets against cost of running the space and the regularity of opening.

All Warm Spaces were required to sign a grant agreement prior to any funding being transferred.