York groups can apply for up to £5,000 to run a Warm Place this winter. The £40,000 fund closes at midnight on Sunday 4 October. 28 won grants last year.
Community groups in York have two weeks left to apply for a share of £40,000 to run a Warm Place this winter. Individual grants go up to £5,000. Applications close at midnight on Sunday 4 October 2026.
The Good Place, Warm Place Fund is run by City of York Council, which opened this year’s round on 16 September. A Warm Place is defined on the council’s own Warm Places in York page as somewhere you can go free of charge to keep warm if you are struggling to heat your home.
Last year the fund paid out to 28 organisations across 16 York wards. The money was spent on food supplies, kitchen equipment and venue running costs, heating included.
What a venue has to offer to qualify
The council sets a low bar on hours and a firm one on cost. To be eligible a group must:
- offer an indoor warm place with seating and facilities for at least two hours a week, without anyone having to buy anything
- have a presence in, and benefit, the local community
- aim to reduce social isolation and improve health and wellbeing
- support local people with the cost of living
The two hours can sit inside an existing group or activity, or be a separate dedicated slot.
What the money can and cannot pay for
The grant can fund:
- an increase in food stocks
- equipment such as kitchen items for preparing and serving food, and seating
- help towards utility and venue costs
- other evidenced requests that let a group continue or develop what it already offers
It cannot fund:
- groups outside York
- individual people
- profit-making or fundraising activities
- third party grant-making organisations, because whoever gets the grant has to deliver the service themselves
How to apply
There is no online form. Groups request an application form by emailing shapingneighbourhoods@york.gov.uk, or by asking their ward Community Officer for one. The deadline is midnight on Sunday 4 October 2026.
Councillor Katie Lomas, the council’s Executive Member for Finance, Performance, Major Projects, Human Rights, Equality and Inclusion, said Warm Places “provide much more than somewhere warm to sit during the winter months”, offering “friendship, support and a sense of belonging, helping people stay connected with their local community at a time when many may be feeling isolated or facing financial pressures”.
The council’s release also carries two unnamed voices from last winter. A resident in Micklegate ward said a Warm Place “gives you a safe place to chat and keep warm and help financially also mentally”. A volunteer in Huntington and New Earswick ward said it is “so much more than just a warm building, this is where our community lives and grows”.
A second deadline, sooner
Groups with a wider project in mind have a nearer date to watch. The second round of City of York Council’s ward funding for 2026/27 closes on 27 September 2026, a week before the Warm Places deadline.
Projects have to show they contribute to at least one of the council’s four priorities: equality of opportunity, affordability and the cost of living, climate change and the environment, and health and wellbeing. Past rounds have paid for Tang Hall Breakfast Club’s Pay-As-You-Feel Friday breakfasts, an outdoor shelter for Fulford Scout Group and a ten-week cooking programme at Door 84 Youth and Community Centre.
What it means for you
If you are looking for a Warm Place to use. There is no published list yet. The council says it puts out a Warm Places Directory on Live Well York each year and will “share details of the directory when it’s available”. Until it appears, the standing option is the library network: Explore York runs 15 libraries across the city, open from early morning into the evening, with free Wi-Fi, public computers and low-cost hot meals at its Reading Cafés.
If you run a group that already opens its doors. You may qualify without changing anything. The two-hour weekly minimum is the only opening requirement, and the fund will pay towards heating and venue costs you are already carrying.
If you are worried about heating your home. The council lists its own help with utility bills and benefits advice pages alongside the Warm Places scheme. Our York council tax bands page sets out this year’s charges and the discounts that reduce them.
Sources
Have your say