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Office Floorspace in Lancashire
2007

March 2008

Photograph of an office building

Introduction

Information on commercial and industrial floorspace and rateable values is published periodically by the (External) Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) in collaboration with the (External) Valuation Office Agency (VOA) . This data covers non-domestic properties (known as hereditaments) under five so-called 'bulk classes': retail, offices, factories, warehouses and 'other' (which includes many types of community leisure properties, public houses, social clubs, etc). For each bulk class the number of hereditaments, total floorspace, total rateable value, and rateable value per m2 are shown. Results for Lancashire are given in a separate research monitor, Commercial and Industrial Floorspace . In the case of the office bulk class, additional information is provided in terms of commercial and 'other' offices and this is outlined below.

The Data

The office bulk class includes premises being used as offices in purpose built office buildings, offices over shops and offices in converted houses. A considerable number of premises contain a substantial mix of office and retail space and depending on the mix and local circumstances, they may be valued as offices or retail. Hence larger banks, building society outlets, post offices and estate agents with substantive office space are likely to be valued as offices. Similarly, non-office activity (e.g. laboratories, instrument manufacture and repair and other light storage facilities and light industrial activities) in an office building or similar circumstances is likely to be valued as an office. The class is broadly similar to 'B1' in the Town & Country Planning Use Classification.

Rateable Values

The rateable value of property is the value at which a property might be expected to be let for one year. It is based on a range of factors including use, location and age, but a major determinate of rental value is often floorspace. The VOA assesses all properties that are either occupied, or vacant but capable of beneficial occupation. The fact that a property is vacant has no impact on its rateable value, though it can affect the level of rates payable. For example, some vacant properties may attract relief from rates. Properties that are derelict beyond repair or incapable of being occupied are not in general assessed. The law requires that the rateable values of non-domestic properties be revalued every five years. The VOA sets rateable values in line with as assessment of the commercial rental market. Each revaluation has a specified valuation date and changes in value after that date, which are solely due to economic factors, are not reflected in rateable values. Any changes in rateable values after this time is therefore due to changes in the number of hereditaments, a change in the rateable value following appeal, or a change in the extent of a hereditament. The statistics presented here for 1st April 2007 are based on the 2005 VOA revaluation. The changes occurring for this revaluation had a significant impact on the continuity of the statistics compared with those for earlier years and caution should be exercised in comparisons over time.

The office class is divided into two sub-sets:

• Commercial Offices – comprising mainly purpose-built office buildings and various types of non-domestic buildings converted to offices, offices over shops and computer centres. This category also includes central government offices but not local government. Commercial offices are more prevalent, having more floorspace and a higher rateable value per m2.
• Other Offices – comprising the remainder of hereditaments within the office bulk class. These comprise mainly local government offices, surgeries and clinics and police stations.

The complete data set for the whole of England and Wales can be downloaded from the (External) Neighbourhood Statistics website whilst the Lancashire data can be obtained from the Lancashire Profile Data Download Centre .

Summary of Results

Overall, office use in the Lancashire sub-region in 2007 comprised some 7,090 separate hereditaments covering a floorspace area of nearly 1.9 million sq.metres (Table 1). This area represented 10.3% of all the commercial and industrial floorspace in Lancashire included within the five bulk classes – a much lower proportion given over to office use than in England at large where offices use accounted for 17.1% of the non-domestic floorspace total. With an average floorspace area of 265sqm, office units in Lancashire were also rather smaller than in England where the average was 294sqm. The average rateable value of offices in Lancashire, at £55 per sqm, was well under half the figure for England at £122 per sqm.

Photograph of Tustin Court, 40,000 square feet of luxury accommodation at Preston Riversway Source (External) Tustin Developments Ltd

Because of hereditaments revaluations and changes to the detailed composition of the bulk classes (including the addition of an 'Other' class in 2005) it is not possible to be too precise about recent trends in office floorspace. However, it does appear that despite the continued under-representation of offices in Lancashire, growth in both the number of office hereditaments and floorspace in the sub-region has exceeded the England average by a wide margin over the years 1998 to 2007. The growth in 'Other' office floorspace over the period was negligible both in Lancashire and England and was accompanied by a reduction in hereditaments numbers. The growth was driven entirely by Commercial Offices, which in Lancashire enjoyed a floorspace increase of about 60% or more than double the average rate in England with hereditament numbers rising by over 35% &nndash; again, twice the rate nationally. Part of the explanation for this rapid local growth is likely to be found in the strong expansion of business services in the sub-region over the period which were themselves fuelled by high levels of out-sourcing activity amongst manufacturing and other companies and buoyant consumer service trends, together with growth in central government administration activities.

Preston is by far the largest single centre of office floorspace in the Lancashire NUTS-2 area, accounting for more than a fifth of the total and nearly a quarter of commercial office space (Figure 1/Table 2). With an average unit floorspace area of 403 sqm, office hereditaments in Preston are also somewhat larger than the England average of 294 sqm. The smallest amount of floorspace devoted to office accommodation was recorded in Ribble Valley District with just 28,000 sqm with an average unit size of only 111 sqm. Whilst Preston was easily the largest centre for commercial office floorspace which accounted for 84% of all office space in the district, the share of commercial office space was marginally higher in Fylde (88%) reflecting the local importance of a number of office-based sectors. Shares of commercial floorspace across most of Lancashire are below 77%, falling to just 58% in Pendle and 57% in Ribble Valley.

Map of total office floorspace and how it is distributed between commercial and other office types in Lancashire's local authorities - see text for details Source ONS - Commercial and Industrial Floorspace and Rateable Value Statistics, 2007

Floorspace area for the total office stock (though not for commercial/other categories separately) is also available for the smaller geographical areas of Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs) as illustrated in Figure 2. Most parts of the Lancashire area have some office presence but the highest concentrations (over 100,000 sqm) are still to be found in the traditional town centre areas where accessibility is usually greatest. Over several years there has been a growing tendency for greater dispersal of office activity, particularly for activities that are not so demanding of general accessibility (e.g. as for many business service companies or call centres for example). This is reflected in the higher amounts of office floorspace now to be found in out-of-centre and out-of-town locations, often on purpose-built industrial estates and employment areas close to the motorway network.

Map showing total office floorspace in Lancashire's middle-layer super output areas - see text for details Note Floorspace areas have been rounded to the nearest thousand square metres. Rounding in this way means that counts for individual MSOAs where floorspace is less than 500 sqm will be recorded as zero (white areas in the map) even though they may not in reality be zero. Source ONS - Commercial and Industrial Floorspace and Rateable Value Statistics, 2006

The importance of Preston as a sub-regional commercial and administrative centre is also emphasised in the fact that the district's office total rateable value of £28.5m represents 27% of the Lancashire total and is nearly as much as the figure for all six East Lancashire districts combined (Table 3). However, with an average rateable rateable value of £71 per sqm, Preston ranks just behind Chorley where the much smaller office stock is valued at £72 per sqm. In comparison with the average for England of £122 per sqm, even these two best performing Lancashire districts have office rental values per sqm that are relatively inexpensive. Rateable values of £34 per sqm in Wyre are the lowest in the sub-region and Wyre is the only local district to have commercial office space valuations that are lower than for other offices.

This page was compiled by Peter Kivell .

All enquiries from the media should be sent to Corporate.Communications@lancashire.gov.uk .

Any other questions about the content of this page may be sent to EconInfo@lancashire.gov.uk .

For all enquiries about the county council's services , contact the Customer Service Centre on 0845 0530000 (01772 530000) or at Enquiries@css.lancscc.gov.uk .

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