Best areas to open retail warehouse in North East
12 North East local authorities ranked by the Gera Business Location Score — real rent, wages, rates and market density.
Where is the best place to open a retail warehouse / foodstore in North East?
In North East, the best area to open a retail warehouse / foodstore is Darlington, with a Gera Business Location Score of 68.3/100: premises at £83/m²/yr and local median pay £29,692. Stockton-on-Tees ranks lowest of 12 North East authorities at 54.4/100. From 2025 UK government open data; re-dated annually.
Gera Business Location Score
Top North East area for retail warehouse: Darlington.
How this is calculatedNorth East ranked for retail warehouse
| # | Local authority | GBLS | Rent (£/m²/yr) | Local pay | Rates / 100 m² |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Darlington | 68.3/100 | £83 | £29,692 | £3,586 |
| 2 | South Tyneside | 66.5/100 | £84 | £25,490 | £3,629 |
| 3 | Hartlepool | 65.3/100 | £80 | £28,204 | £3,456 |
| 4 | Northumberland | 64.8/100 | £111 | £27,769 | £4,795 |
| 5 | Middlesbrough | 64/100 | £93 | £29,502 | £4,018 |
| 6 | Redcar and Cleveland | 63.5/100 | £96 | £28,356 | £4,147 |
| 7 | Sunderland | 63.5/100 | £103 | £28,214 | £4,450 |
| 8 | Newcastle upon Tyne | 62.3/100 | £103 | £31,786 | £4,450 |
| 9 | County Durham | 61.1/100 | £110 | £29,393 | £4,752 |
| 10 | North Tyneside | 58/100 | £136 | £29,311 | £5,875 |
| 11 | Gateshead | 54.9/100 | £187 | £28,507 | £8,078 |
| 12 | Stockton-on-Tees | 54.4/100 | £156 | £29,537 | £6,739 |
Frequently asked questions
- What is the cheapest area for retail warehouse premises in North East?
- The lowest VOA rateable value for this property type in North East is £80/m²/yr in Hartlepool. On the combined Gera Business Location Score, which also weighs wages and demand, Darlington ranks #1.
- How much are business rates for retail warehouse in Darlington?
- For a 100 m² unit in Darlington, business rates are roughly £3,586/yr at the 2026-27 small-business multiplier (43.2p), on top of about £8,300/yr rent — before Small Business Rate Relief.
Opening a retail warehouse / foodstore in North East?
Set up your UK GDPR and EU AI Act compliance from day one with a fixed-scope GeraCompliance sprint.
Contains public sector information published by Valuation Office Agency and Office for National Statistics and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: VOA Business Floorspace + ONS Business Counts + ONS ASHE (work geography) + ONS population estimates (2025 (VOA 31 March 2025; ASHE 2025 provisional; Business Counts 2025; population mid-2024), published December 2025).