Revealed - the towns with the most and least warehousing space

Operators in Slough, Cambridge and Huddersfield are likely to be struggling the most to locate warehousing space according to new research, while Blackpool and Sheffield are the least affected.

With the boom in online sales over the last two years powering the demand for storage, warehouse management software provider OrderWise found there is just 0.34sq ft of space available to rent for each of the 6,660 registered businesses in the Berkshire town of Slough.

For Cambridge it is slightly higher, at 1.41sq ft and Huddersfield firms have just 1.66sq ft.

However, at the other end of the spectrum, Blackpool-based companies have enough space to swing several cats, with 516.46sq ft for each of the 3,900 businesses.

Sheffield is second with 348.09sq ft and port city Liverpool has 252.08sq ft.

Jon Roberts, OrderWise sales director, said: “Warehouse operators are continuing to deal with economic pressures, the impacts of Brexit and global supply chain issues.

“A result of these challenges is a shortage of available warehouse space and this data certainly puts in black and white this growing challenge that the industry has been battling against over the past couple of years.

“The commercial property market is a tough place right now, and the insights show the difficulties businesses face when trying to source more warehouse space.”

The research mirrors figures produced by commercial real estate firm CBRE, which showed take-up of UK logistics space climbed to a new high of 22.56m sq ft in H1 2022.

This was a 10% increase compared to the same period last year, with third party logistics accounting for the largest percentage of take-up, at 27.6%.

Paul Farrow, CBRE executive director, said: “Over the last two years, online retail has been the dominant force behind the rising demand for logistics space as a result of the recent e-commerce boom.

“However, the pendulum has swung and the shift in both occupier type and regional spread of take-up shows the true depth of the UK logistics market.”