Given expected further economic struggle ahead of most everyone living in the UK, such gatherings perhaps come being more appropriate than ever. If not late already. The only contradiction is with the otherwise super consumerism-oriented societal tune across most Europe, UK including.
We did a "restart party" at our hackerspace a few years ago. Definitely could have used a good stock of capacitors. Probably power cords. Not sure what to do with all the very specific USB-C etc. ports that break.
Everything about fixing something broken is so appealing. Better for the environment, often better for your wallet, and better for the soul.
I think this applies to software too! Writing good software allows it to be maintained well and it being open source helps promote that. Publishing good documentation is another huge win for maintainability.
Something that repair enables is wealth in the sense that David Deutsch uses in "Beginning of Infinity:" the repertoire of physical transformations that they would be capable of causing