Cold Homes Week

This week is a big week for our campaign for warm homes – it’s Cold Homes Week (2-6 February), a week of action to raise awareness of the scandal of excess winter deaths and help secure warm homes for all.

At Age UK we believe that no older person should have to worry about the cold and everyone should be able to keep warm and well in winter – and our supporters agree. Many of them are knitters who have taken part in the Big Knit and knitted hundreds of hats for innocent smoothies, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for us.

So this year, we thought we’d ask them to support our campaign for warm homes by knitting a warm home for Cold Homes Week. We also decided to run a competition for the best knitted home.

KNITTED VILLAGES

We’ve had an overwhelming response to the campaign to date. We’ve had entire villages knitted for us, churches, a house with a swimming pool, a pub, a post office and houses that represent the four seasons. We’ve also had a vicar who knits get in touch with us, dozens of enthusiastic knitting groups and lots of older people living in care homes send us their truly inspired creations.

During Cold Homes Week itself, local Age UKs up and down the country will be proudly exhibiting the knitted homes and inviting MPs, Prospective Parliamentary Candidates and local decision makers to come and see them and have a discussion about tackling fuel poverty locally.

PUTTING WARM HOMES ON THE AGENDA

We hope that this will put warm homes on the political and public agenda ahead of the General Election and push all political parties to make home energy efficiency an infrastructure investment priority in their manifestos.

We know that a legacy of warm and well-insulated homes would make a significant contribution to enabling everyone – not just older people – to keep warm, well and healthy in the future.

To find out more, visit Age UK’s website or visit our Pinterest page to see photos of the knitted warm homes.

Author: Age UK

Age UK is dedicated to helping everyone make the most of later life. In the UK we help more than 7 million older people each year by providing advice, combating loneliness and enabling independence. Locally, we work as part of a network of independent charities which includes Age UK, Age Cymru, Age NI and Age Scotland and over 150 local Age UK partners in England and Wales. View all posts by Age UK