Industrial Flooorspace Today

The only region to record a decrease in availability was the West Midlands where voids fell 1.9% to 23.4 million sf. But availability in England--at 181 million sf--is now only marginally below the previous peak of 182 million sf, recorded in August 1993.

The report highlights the problems facing manufacturing businesses in the UK: over the period 1995-2002 UK manufacturing output declined by 1.4% while the UK economy as a whole grew by 20% over the same period. And to make maters worse for the industrial property market, distribution operators have been rationalising their logistics networks, taking centralised 'mega-sheds' and releasing space in smaller facilities across the country.

David Brooks, National Industrial partner at King Sturge said: Activity levels are still encouraging for the right product and we have experienced an improvement in the level of enquiries in certain locations."