Warm banks to get cash from Welsh government

A fund worth £1m will be provided by the Welsh government to organisations providing "warm banks" this winter.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said the cash will be made available to support community centres, sports clubs and others.

Household energy bills will rise to £2,500 a year from 1 October, in part due to reductions in Russian gas exports during the war in Ukraine.

The UK government is planning to cap average bills to £2,500 until 2024.

Concern over whether people will be able to heat their homes this winter has led to proposals across the UK of community spaces offering facilities where people can go to stay warm.

In the Senedd, Mr Drakeford said it was "very difficult to believe that we have reached the point where community councils, faith groups, sports clubs, community centres are having to plan to prevent people from facing extreme fuel poverty this winter".

"And while we applaud these efforts, motivated as they are by a determination to make a difference, every organisation I have met has told me they wish it wasn't need."

It is not clear at this stage how the funding would work.

But Mr Drakeford said the £1m would be made available to "support those efforts, extending their reach and their remit".

"A modest addition of, say, £10,000 can be the difference between enabling the effort I have mentioned to succeed, and it failing to get off the ground," he said.

In the statement Mr Drakeford said a committee of the Welsh government cabinet has been set up to "focus all our efforts this autumn on doing everything we can to support people through this crisis".

Earlier, Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price called for Mark Drakeford to freeze rail fares and cap bus fares.

In England the UK government has said it will hold off increasing rail fares until next March, and will then increase them below the rate of inflation.

Bus journeys in England will also be capped at £2 from January to March.

Mr Drakeford did not rule out either measure, but questioned how Mr Price would pay for them from Welsh government budgets.

"It is crucial the Labour Government in Wales use every tool available to them to mitigate the impact of soaring energy bills and plummeting living standards," Mr Price said.

Plaid Cymru Sioned Williams MS said the Labour government "has the power to help protect the people of Wales".

"I'm therefore glad the Welsh Government heeded Plaid Cymru's calls for warm banks, but their action must go further - freezing all rents, banning evictions over winter, halving rail fares and capping bus fares."