Out of Office Space in London? How to Move Archived Files Offsite Without Losing Quick Access

Average Grade A rents in the City of London reached £86.26 per sq ft in August 2026, up around 20% on a year earlier, while the West End average hit £134.17^[1]. At those rates, a modest 150 sq ft file room costs roughly £12,900 a year in the City and £20,100 in the West End – in rent alone, before business rates and service charges. That is a lot of money to spend on boxes most people never open.

The short answer for a London business in this position: Stop paying office rent for records you don’t use, but don’t simply ship them somewhere you can’t reach. The options that work combine three things – removing what you no longer need to keep, moving the rest to a secure offsite facility close enough for same-day or next-day retrieval, and using scan on demand so that most requests arrive as a digital copy in hours rather than a box on a van. Full digitisation then becomes something you can do gradually, file by file, rather than a single large project.

This guide sets out each option, what “quick access” should actually mean in a storage contract, and the questions to ask before you choose a provider.

Start by working out what you actually have to keep

Most archives contain three kinds of records: Those you can already destroy, those you must keep but rarely touch, and those you still use. Each needs a different answer, so sorting them first is the cheapest step you can take.

The legal minimums are often shorter than people assume, and sometimes longer:

• Company and accounting records: Limited companies must keep records for 6 years from the end of the last financial year they relate to, and longer where a transaction spans several accounting periods, an asset is expected to last more than 6 years, a Company Tax Return was filed late or HMRC has opened a compliance check^[2]. The Companies Act 2006 sets its own, shorter minimum of 3 years for private companies and 6 years for plcs, so the tax requirement is usually the one that bites^[3].
• Contracts and deeds: Claims on a simple contract generally can’t be brought more than 6 years after the cause of action arose, while claims on a deed run for 12 years^[4]. Many organisations set retention periods with these limitation periods in mind.
• Personal data: UK GDPR sets no fixed retention periods, but you must not keep personal data for longer than you need it, and you need to be able to justify the periods you choose^[5]. Keeping everything “just in case” is a compliance risk as well as a storage cost.

Your accountant, solicitor or regulator may impose longer periods for your sector, so treat these as a starting point. The output you want is a simple retention schedule: Record type, retention period, trigger date and what happens at the end.

The five options, compared

Option	How you get a file back	Speed of access	Best for	Watch out for
Keep it in the office	Walk to the cabinet	Immediate	A small number of live files	You pay prime rent for every square foot
Secure destruction	You don’t – it’s gone	Not applicable	Records past their retention period	Needs an audit trail and sign-off
Offsite storage with physical retrieval	Box or file delivered to your office	Hours to next day, depending on distance	Records you must keep but rarely need	Distance, indexing level and exit fees
Offsite storage with scan on demand	Digital copy sent to you	Typically same day or next working day	Occasional requests, remote or hybrid teams	Check turnaround and how files are delivered
Full digitisation	Search and open on screen	Immediate	Records in regular use	Upfront cost; some originals may still need keeping

Option 1: Destroy what you no longer need to keep

The cheapest box to store is the one you no longer have. Once your retention schedule is agreed, records past their end date can be shredded securely. Ask for destruction to BS EN 15713, the code of practice covering the collection, storage, transport and destruction of confidential material^[6], and a certificate of destruction for every batch so you can show what went, when and why.

Option 2: Offsite storage with physical retrieval

This is the traditional records management model: Boxes are collected, barcoded and stored in a secure facility, and you request them back when you need them. It frees office space immediately and suits records you are legally obliged to keep but rarely consult.

Whether it delivers quick access depends on three details that are easy to overlook:

• Distance: A facility several hours up the motorway turns every urgent request into a next-day request at best. For London businesses, a records centre in or on the edge of the capital is what makes same-day emergency retrieval realistic.
• Indexing level: If only boxes are indexed, retrieving one file means recalling a whole box and searching through it. File-level indexing lets the provider pull the single folder you need.
• Chain of custody: Every box should be barcoded at collection and tracked online, so you can see your inventory and place requests yourself rather than relying on spreadsheets.

Option 3: Offsite storage with scan on demand

Scan on demand removes most of the waiting. Instead of sending a box, the provider retrieves the file, scans it and sends you a secure digital copy. For staff working from home or across several sites, this is usually faster and more useful than a physical delivery, and you only pay to digitise the files people actually ask for.

Over time, this builds a digital archive of exactly the records your organisation uses, without paying to scan the many that nobody does. It is also a sensible way to test demand before committing to a larger digitisation project.

Option 4: Digitise the archive

For records that are still in regular use – live client files, property documents, HR records for current staff – full digitisation gives instant, searchable access and frees the space permanently once the originals are destroyed or moved offsite.

Digital copies are generally acceptable for tax purposes: HMRC guidance allows records to be kept on paper, digitally (including as scanned copies) or in software, and accepts scanned copies of documents with handwritten signatures, subject to exceptions set out in legislation^[7]. Before destroying originals, check with your advisers about documents whose legal effect depends on the original, such as deeds, and choose a scanning provider that works to BS 10008, the standard for the legal admissibility of electronic information.

Option 5: Combine them

In practice, most London organisations end up with a mix: Destroy what has expired, store the dormant majority offsite with scan on demand, and digitise the small proportion of records people use every week. The retention schedule tells you which records belong in which bucket.

What “quick access” should mean in your contract

Every storage provider promises fast retrieval. Pin down what that means before you sign:

1. Where is the facility, and how long does it take to reach your office? This sets the floor for every emergency request.
2. What are the standard and emergency retrieval times, and what is the daily cut-off? Get these in writing as service levels, not marketing.
3. Can you request a single file, or only a whole box?
4. Can they scan a file and send it digitally instead, and how quickly?
5. Who moves your records? The provider’s own vetted staff and vehicles, or a third-party courier?
6. Which security certifications do they hold? ISO 27001 for information security is the baseline for anything confidential.
7. What will it cost to leave? Ask specifically about retrieval charges, minimum invoices and fees for permanently withdrawing boxes. These are the costs that make switching supplier, digitising or destroying records later more expensive than expected.

How Dajon helps London businesses

Dajon’s records centre is in Orpington, in the London Borough of Bromley, with a London office on Borough High Street. Requests made before 3pm are delivered the next day, with two-hour delivery in an emergency, and scan on demand typically returns files electronically within one working day. There are no permanent withdrawal fees, no minimum invoice and certified BS EN 15713 destruction when records expire.

Frequently Asked Questions

If your archive is outgrowing your office, talk to Dajon’s London records team about how many boxes you have and how often you need them. We’ll recommend the right mix of storage, scanning and destruction.

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References

1. Central London Office Market Watch – September 2026 Savills[↩]
2. Running a limited company: Company and accounting records GOV.UK[↩]
3. CH14600: How long must records be retained for – Corporation Tax HMRC[↩]
4. Limitation Act 1980 legislation.gov.uk[↩]
5. Principle (e): Storage limitation ICO[↩]
6. BS EN 15713:2023 Secure destruction of confidential and sensitive material BSI[↩]
7. HMRC guidance on digital records and signatures ICAEW[↩]