A major Liverpool charity is fighting back against the spiralling cost-of-living crisis by implementing a number of new measures including the launch of a Community Living Room.

Launched back in 1974, Local Solutions is a vital organisation operating across Merseyside and North Wales and working with tens of thousands of people in the region through a number of different services in sectors like domestic abuse, homelessness, bullying and social care.

The charity is seeing people struggle, with unpaid carers particularly hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis having to look after people with issues the likes of which mean they are; unable to turn the heating off, having to wash bed sheets on a daily basis, using specialist electric beds and breathing equipment or needing to buy specific foods for special diets – the cost of which are escalating, but they have no choice other than to carry on.

Now, Local Solutions are doing a number of things to fight back and help people in the midst of adversity by running a cost-of-living day and an all Community Living Room.

Every Monday at the Carers Centre on Edge Lane, Hazel Brown – who is Head of Communities at the charity – is now running the Community Living Room for people to go in and keep warm while having a cup of tea and a cake amidst the problems they are facing with spiralling fuel and food costs.

The initiative has been launched in the wake of British electricity and gas regulator Ofgem announcing the energy price cap would rise by a shocking 80% to £3,549 from last month, the consequences of which feed into the broader cost-of-living crisis with inflation at a 40-year high (10.1%) and wages stagnating.

Head of Communities at Local Solutions Hazel Brown said:

“During the covid lockdowns, people stepped into the world of an unpaid carer and experienced the struggles they face on a daily basis – not being able to leave the house and all of the associated difficulties that come with that.

“Now the world has opened back up again but people are still really struggling, even worse than before, and once again the charity sector is stepping in to help.

“The consequences, if we chose to sit back and let people deal with this awful cost-of-living crisis on their own, would be fatal.

“That is why it’s so important people – particularly unpaid carers of which I’d estimate there are nearly 100,000 in this region – come to us for help. Pick up the phone or come and visit us, use the open days that we are running to get help. There is support out there.

“No question or issue is too small and our team here at Local Solutions is absolutely brilliant.”

Find out more about Local Solutions and all the work they carry out here: https://www.localsolutions.org.uk.