Most business owners weighing up more office space against a storage unit compare one number: the rent on the brochure. It looks simple, so it feels like the whole answer. Then the second invoice lands, the one nobody put in the brochure, and the “cheaper” office suddenly is not so cheap. If you are staring at a bigger lease quote while stock boxes take over your desk, you are not being precious. You are right to want the whole number before you sign anything.
In a hurry? Pick your situation.
- Just need space for stock, archive or seasonal kit, not people or a desk: skip to what storage removes and the next step.
- Weighing up a bigger lease at renewal time: go straight to the worked cost comparison and the honesty section on where storage costs more.
- Need to know what storage cannot do before you commit: read what storage does not replace first.
What’s Really On Top of Your Office Rent
Headline rent is usually the smallest line on a commercial lease, not the whole bill. Business rates, service charge, buildings insurance and a fixed-term commitment all ride on top of it, and most of them are invisible until the first quarter’s invoices arrive.
Business rates are not a percentage of rent, whatever it might feel like when you compare the two. They are calculated as your unit’s Rateable Value multiplied by a government-set multiplier, and Rateable Value moves independently of rent, so the uplift can swing hard from one building to the next.
Service charge has no official UK rate either. Landlords bill it against the real, budgeted cost of running the building, so it varies by property, not by a fixed formula.
The fixed-term commitment is the part most brochures don’t headline at all. A typical office lease locks you in for one to five years. If your overflow need is seasonal, or you are not sure the business will need this much space in eighteen months, that term is a cost in itself, whether or not you ever miss a rent payment.
This lands differently depending on where you sit. If you already have a working office or shop and it’s the stockroom and the desks disappearing under boxes, what you need is space for things, not space for people, and a multi-year lease on more of the same floor is a heavy way to solve that. If your lease is coming up for renewal and you’re weighing a bigger unit against keeping what you have and storing the overflow separately, the rates and service charge maths below is the comparison to run before you sign anything. And if you’re a trade business, a plumber, electrician or joiner with a van and a growing pile of materials that has been living in a garage or a spare room, the fixed-term question is often the deciding one: you want the stock properly housed, but not at the cost of a lease you can’t step back from when the season is quiet.
The 2026/27 Business Rates Number, Explained Simply
For 2026/27, the small business non-domestic rating multiplier in England is 43.2p in the pound, and the standard multiplier is 48.0p, confirmed by GOV.UK’s official notification. Small Business Rate Relief can bring a low-value occupier’s bill down to nothing at all, so this is genuinely case by case, never a flat add-on you can assume applies to you.
How the multiplier works. Your rates bill is Rateable Value multiplied by the multiplier, before any relief is applied. It is not a slice of your rent. Two neighbouring units with identical rent can carry very different rates bills if their Rateable Values differ.
Small Business Rate Relief. Relief can reach 100% for a Rateable Value under £12,000 in England, tapering out by £15,000. If your unit sits in that band, your rates bill could be close to zero. If it doesn’t, you are likely paying the multiplier in full.
This is general information, not tax or financial advice. For your own figure, use GOV.UK’s business rates estimator or ask your accountant, since eligibility depends on your specific Rateable Value and any other premises you occupy.
The Worked Comparison: 100 sq ft of Extra Office Space vs a Storage Unit
Here is the honest headline. A fully-relieved small occupier might pay only the rent on their new 100 sq ft, but a non-relieved occupier’s all-in cost, once rates and service charge are added, can run roughly £2,000 to £4,700 a year for the same space in a regional market-town office, before the lease term or insurance uplift is even counted.
The table below is a worked, illustrative example built from named 2026/27 sources. It is not a quote. Confirm your own numbers against your landlord and GOV.UK’s estimator before you decide.
| Cost element | Office lease (100 sq ft, regional fringe)* | Wigwam self storage* |
|---|---|---|
| Headline rent / base cost | £1,500-£3,000/year (fringe office rent, Oktra 2026) | Single all-in weekly price, quoted live for your size and town |
| Business rates | £0 (fully relieved, low RV) to roughly +30-45% of rent (non-relieved, 2026/27 multiplier) | None |
| Service charge | +5-20% of rent (RICS market shorthand, ordinary building) | None |
| Buildings / contents insurance | Buildings insurance uplift, varies by landlord | Contents insurance required (RSA Self Storage Customers’ Goods policy, £50 excess) |
| Lease / term commitment | Fixed term, typically 1-5 years | Rolling 2-week minimum term, 14 days’ notice to leave |
| Total annual range | £1,500-£3,000 (relieved) to roughly £2,000-£4,700 (non-relieved) | Get your exact figure from a live quote for your unit size and town |
*Figures are dated 2026/27, illustrative, and England-specific for the rates element. Confirm your own numbers; this is a worked example, not a quote.
Reading the table: two honest scenarios. If your new space qualifies for full Small Business Rate Relief, the office column may simply be the rent. If it doesn’t, rates and service charge alone can add fifteen to fifty per cent or more on top, before the lease term is even factored in. Which scenario applies depends on your specific Rateable Value, not a rule of thumb.
Why we can’t give you one number for storage. Wigwam deliberately doesn’t publish a fixed rate for a specific business-sized unit, because price depends on your town and the exact size you need. The honest way to get your figure is a live quote, for your exact size and town, not our estimate.
If you’ve read this far and the rates-and-service-charge math is the part keeping you up at night, that’s the moment to check your own number rather than guess it. See your own number.
Where Storage Can Actually Cost More (the Honesty Gate)
Here is the part a storage company doesn’t have to tell you, but should. A small storage unit can cost more per square foot than a fringe office lease’s headline rent alone. The real reason to choose storage isn’t a lower base rate, it’s the overhead stack it removes and the flexibility that comes with it.
The 25 sq ft example. Wigwam’s own pricing page quotes a 25 sq ft unit at £12 to £45 a week depending on location, which annualises to roughly £624 to £2,340 a year. Set that against a fringe office’s £15-£30 per square foot rent-only figure for the same footprint, and on rent alone the office can look cheaper per square foot. That is a fair comparison to make, and pretending otherwise wouldn’t earn your trust.
Why storage still wins for occasional-use space. The office figure above is rent only. Add the rates, service charge and lease term from the sections above, and the comparison shifts fast for space that isn’t used every day. A storage unit carries none of that stack, and you’re free to leave with two weeks’ notice rather than waiting out a multi-year term.
The distinction that actually matters is how often the space earns its keep. An office desk used five days a week justifies its full occupancy cost because someone is generating revenue from it every day. A stockroom shelf, an archive box opened twice a month, or a seasonal delivery of stock that only needs housing for a few months of the year does not carry that same daily justification, and that is precisely the space where paying rates, service charge and a multi-year commitment on top of rent stops making financial sense. The honest reading of both examples above is not “storage is always cheaper.” It is that the right comparison depends on how the space is actually used, and a financially literate owner runs that comparison rather than assuming either answer.
What Self Storage Removes From the Equation
A storage unit takes several things off the table entirely, rather than reducing them. There are no business rates, no service charge, no fixed multi-year term, and unused days are refunded rather than lost.
No rates, no service charge, restated once. As covered above, both of those sit on top of office rent and can add fifteen to fifty per cent or more. Neither applies to a storage unit at all.
The rolling term and 14-day notice, precisely. At Wigwam, you pay a refundable two-week deposit and the first four weeks upfront when you sign up. The minimum term is two weeks. To leave, you give 14 days’ notice. On exit, your deposit is refunded, and any unused days are refunded separately. Treat those as two distinct steps, deposit and unused days, not one blended promise.
What Self Storage Does NOT Replace
A storage unit is not a substitute for staffed business premises, and it’s better to be clear about that before you commit than to find out afterwards. It cannot be your registered business address, a staffed shop, a workshop, or a trading floor.
Registered business address and staffed premises. If you need somewhere customers walk into, or somewhere your business is legally registered, a storage unit does not do that job. It holds things, not people or transactions.
Deliveries at unmanned sites. Access runs 6am to 10pm, seven days a week, through smart entry, and most sites are unmanned. If you’re expecting a courier delivery, someone from your business needs to be there to receive it. There’s no reception staff to sign for a parcel on your behalf.
Plan around this rather than being caught out by it: if part of your reason for wanting more space is to receive stock deliveries at a fixed address while you’re not there, a storage unit on its own doesn’t solve that. It solves the housing problem once the stock has arrived. If deliveries need signing for, that’s still a job for you or a colleague, at your office, your home, or the storage site in person during opening hours.
A Simple Framework to Run Your Own Numbers
Rather than take this article’s illustrative figures as your own, here is a short checklist to size the decision against your real numbers.
Four numbers to gather. Your headline rent quote for the extra space. Its Rateable Value. A service charge figure or estimate from the landlord. And the length of term you’re being asked to commit to.
Where to check each one. For rates and relief, use GOV.UK’s estimator with your Rateable Value. For service charge, ask the landlord or agent for the building’s actual budgeted figure rather than a rule of thumb. For relief eligibility specifically, speak to your accountant, since it depends on your full occupation picture, not just this one unit. And while you’re running the numbers, check storage’s own from-prices for a same-day comparison point.
None of this needs to be complicated, and it doesn’t need Wigwam’s support team either, since business rates liability and tax treatment sit outside what any storage provider can advise on. It needs four real figures from your own paperwork and ten minutes with GOV.UK’s own tool. Once you have those, the table earlier in this article stops being illustrative and becomes your actual answer.
The Bottom Line, and Your Next Step
For space you use occasionally, stock, archive, seasonal kit, storage usually wins once rates, service charge and lease term are all counted in rather than just the rent. For space your team works in every day, an office lease may still be the right call, and no article can tell you which side of that line you’re on. The only way to know for certain is to run your own numbers and get a real quote.
Get your exact number for your size and town. Still comparing your options? See Wigwam’s full business storage range or browse the locations page to find your nearest site, among them Wigwam Self Storage Reading and Wigwam Self Storage Chipping Norton. For more on what a storage unit is and isn’t built to cover, read Wigwam’s full case for business self storage and check contents cover requirements before you book.
Frequently Asked Questions
This is general information, not tax advice. Storage costs for business use are often an allowable expense, but the exact treatment depends on your business structure and circumstances. Speak to your accountant for a definitive answer.
No. Wigwam’s own terms confirm a storage unit cannot serve as a registered business address, a staffed shop, a workshop or a trading space.
Contents insurance is required for the unit itself, either Wigwam’s RSA Self Storage Customers’ Goods policy or your own equivalent cover. This does not replace your business’s own stock or liability insurance for goods in transit or at your trading premises.
It varies. Small Business Rate Relief can reduce a low Rateable Value occupier’s bill toward zero, but there is no universal figure. Use GOV.UK’s business rates estimator with your own Rateable Value, or ask your accountant.
