Britain’s warehouse owners must be on standby to house weaponry for Western military, the chief executive of a major landlord has said.

Andrew Coombs heads up Sirius Real Estate and served in the Territorial Army (TA) during the Cold War. He said his company is factoring military storage into all its investment decisions in the face of Russian aggression, which has triggered a surge in defence spending across the UK and EU.

Germany has has pledged to ramp up its debt to fund €900bn (£750bn) in defence spending over the next decade, while Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, has also vowed to increase Britain’s military budget to 2.5pc of GDP.

Mr Coombs said this will mean more money flowing into the UK to be spent on defence companies and equipment. Defence suppliers are enjoying a boom in demand, with Babcock securing a £1bn contract extension with the British Army on Wednesday, and Avon Technologies announcing a deal to supply Ukraine’s military with gas masks.

He added: “Whatever market you’re in, whether you’re in catering or you’re BAE Systems, you won’t be able to ignore €900bn of spending.

“If you own industrial and warehousing space, what you’re going to find is a very small amount of that €900bn is going to end up being spent on storage and logistics in the UK.

“No matter what it is, spare parts for drones or ration packs that feed soldiers in the field, or spare kit. All of this stuff’s got to be moved and stored.

“Defence logistics is not just pieces of metal, it’s people with electronics, boots, respirators, canisters that need to be replaced on the respirators. The logistics are huge.”