Amazon UK's sustained investment in logistics infrastructure continued to drive significant demand for large distribution and fulfilment facilities across the English Midlands, Yorkshire and North West in 2025 and into 2026, reinforcing the position of logistics property as one of the strongest performing segments of the commercial real estate market even as office and retail sectors faced continued headwinds. The company's expansion programme, which encompasses both new construction and the upgrading of existing facilities with greater automation capability, is reshaping the commercial property landscape of towns and cities across the country.
The economic benefits of the expansion to the regions where facilities are located are real but contested. Large distribution centres employ significant numbers of people — Amazon UK employs tens of thousands of warehouse workers nationally — and generate rates income for local councils, supply business for local contractors and service providers, and contribute to the economic activity of adjacent commercial areas. These benefits are particularly significant in former industrial areas where alternative employment-generating development has been limited.
However, the planning implications have generated increasing conflict. Proposed logistics sites frequently occupy greenfield or agricultural land, generating objections from residents concerned about traffic impacts, noise, light pollution and the visual effect on rural or semi-rural landscapes. Local planning authorities have faced pressure from national government to approve strategic logistics applications quickly to support economic growth, creating tension with community opposition and local development plan policies that were not designed with large-scale logistics facilities in mind.
Commercial property analysts noted that the structural growth in e-commerce volumes — which, despite some post-pandemic rebalancing, has remained substantially elevated relative to the pre-pandemic baseline — makes logistics property one of the most reliably demand-supported real estate classes in the current market, attractive to institutional investors seeking income-generating assets in an uncertain broader property environment.
