The National Chairman of the United Kingdom Warehousing Association concludes there is a shortage of good quality and affordable warehousing.

The lack of speculative industrial property development in recent years has resulted in an acute shortage of good quality, affordable warehousing is the conclusion of John Maguire, National Chairman of the United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA) in his address to UKWA members at the Association’s Annual General Meeting, held recently at the Dorchester Hotel, London.

“Throughout the UK there is a lack of new buildings and sites under five years old built to a high specification and this has tipped the market in favour of landlords,” John Maguire said. “It would appear inevitable that any increases in rents will result in price increases across the supply chain – which will not help the broader economy as it seeks to recover from the doldrums.”

Over the past three years the supply of new build or refurbished industrial accommodation has fallen steadily to the point where it now represents just 11 per cent of all available stock. Currently 84 per cent of all available storage space in the UK is classed as second hand. The situation is unlikely to ease in the immediate future as uncertainty arising from the euro crisis seems certain to delay the return of significant levels of speculative development activity.