While most parts of the economy are either struggling or fighting for survival, logistics and warehousing are positively booming. In February last year internet sales accounted for 19% of total retail purchases but by January this year they had leapt to 36%, according to government statistics. Online sales rose £34bn year-on-year last year and are expected to exceed £150bn by 2024. And according to real estate consultant Knight Frank, every billion pounds of online sales requires about 1.4 million ft² of warehouse space.

Facilitating this boom is the industrial construction sector, which builds the warehouses as well as the logistics and distribution centres needed to store and deliver all these online goods. This once overlooked construction sub-sector had £10.4bn of schemes approved last year – ranking it third behind private housing and the hotel and leisure markets, according to Glenigan.

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