UK museums’ rising energy costs could hamper ‘warm banks’ plan

theguardian.com:

Museums have said they will struggle to provide “warm banks” planned for people priced out of heating their homes, because their own soaring bills threaten opening restrictions and closures this winter.

The Museums Association said on Tuesday that the cost of living crisis risked being a bigger blow to the sector than the pandemic, with many museum directors in despair about how to pay for energy bill increases of up to 500%.

Last week Ofgem confirmed that the average annual household fuel bill would climb by 80% to £3,549 from October, and some analysts say bills could reach£7,600 by next year.

Several areas including Birmingham, Ipswich, Gateshead and at least nine Scottish councils are exploring how to provide warm refuges in museums and other public buildings for people seeking shelter this winter.

But the Museums Association, which represents more than 1,800 UK institutions, said many premises may have to close or restrict opening hours because their uncapped bills would rise by between 200% and 500%.

Its director, Sharon Heal, said: “Museums can only be safe warm spaces if we have sustainable funding. We are getting concerned calls almost every day from institutions saying their anticipated energy bills are five times what they were last year. They say: ‘This is the dealbreaker for us. This is worse than Covid.’ And these are big, significant, city-wide institutions.

“They are in absolute despair. I have never seen anything like it in the sector – museum directors and chief execs saying: ‘We don’t know how we’re going to pay the bills this winter.’”

Museums have been struggling to recover from a fall in revenues during the pandemic.

Next week the association plans to plead with the new prime minister for extra funding to