Charlie Pool, founder of Stowga, the online marketplace for unused warehouse space, said the firm had witnessed a huge spike in demand for space since October from companies “looking to stockpile goods”.

The amount of pallet space on its platform had shrunk by 400,000 to six million pallets since the start of October, he said, adding that there were only 100,000 chilled storage pallet spaces available and that chilled space in key locations in the Midlands and South East had dwindled to nothing.