The manufacturing sector accounted for 27 percent of U.K. industrial take-up in 2024, according to Knight Frank’s latest Future Gazing report, with the sector’s strong growth in recent years reflected in its increasingly prominent role in driving take-up across key domestic manufacturing hubs.
U.K. manufacturing output (in value terms) has risen by 9 percent during the past 10 years, precipitating an uptick in requirements for high-quality facilities in regions supported by highly skilled local labor markets and favorable tax schemes, including freeports and investment zones. Manufacturers have taken up 28 million square feet of space across the United Kingdom during the past three years, representing a quarter of industrial and logistics demand.
The North West has the largest manufacturing presence in terms of floor space, accounting for 16.2 percent of the United Kingdom’s total occupied manufacturing and production floor space, followed by the West Mid