OCCUPATION of the town's offices spaces is up by 10 per cent according to new figures.

Warrington and environs office market recorded a 370,168sq ft take up of office space in 2016, an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year.

Of the 122 transactions seen during the year the largest was the re-letting of the 52,124sq ft Allday House building in Birchwood, which will be used as the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's headquarters.

'Strong' growth was seen in the take up of smaller offices across town, while large spaces were occupied by businesses including dairy product manufacturer Muller, construction group Galliford Try and housebuilding company Taylor Wimpey.

A total of 80 per cent of new deals were leaseholds but 15 freehold transactions were recorded, taking of 77,684 office space - an increase of 50 per cent on 2015.

Simon Roddam, from Birchwood-based commercial property consultancy BE Group, welcomed the news of a boost in office space occupancy.

He said: "2016 was another year dominated by small to medium size office transactions in the Warrington and environs market.

"The average size deal was 2,985sq ft and a similar figure averaged in 2015, which paints an immediate picture of how strong the smaller end of the office market is in Warrington.

"Transactions of 8,000 to 11,000sq ft made up a significant amount of take up in 2016 - there were in total 10 transactions completed in the 8,000 to 11,000sq ft size range.

"These included lettings to household names such as Muller, Galliford Try, Newsquest and Taylor Wimpey to name a few."