Figure 1
Some of the data that are linked together, including the National Land and Property Gazetteer, mapping, business rates, and energy performance data, in order to construct the National Buildings Database (NBD).
Figure 2
A uniform terrace of 10 houses constructed at one time and sharing the same architectural design.
Figure 3
An office with two flats above.
Note: The dashed red outline shows the boundary of the self-contained unit (SCU) for these premises.
Figure 4
A supermarket straddling two buildings with an office above straddling three buildings.
Note: The dashed red line shows the boundary of the self-contained unit (SCU) for these premises.
Table 1
Counts of premises, total floorspace, self-contained units (SCUs) and the ratio of premises to SCUs for all non-domestic Carbon Reduction in the Built Environment (CaRBE) classes in the National Buildings Database (NBD).
| ACTIVITY CLASS | PREMISES (× 1000) | FLOORSPACE (MILLIONS m2) | SCUS (× 1000) | PREMISES PER SCU RATIO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture, Countryside, Animals (AG) | 35.211 | 13.587 | 31.616 | 1.11 |
| Arts and Leisure (AR) | 38.429 | 22.663 | 31.588 | 1.22 |
| Community (CO) | 77.920 | 33.820 | 64.207 | 1.21 |
| Education (ED) | 148.931 | 86.978 | 50.445 | 2.95 |
| Emergency (EM) | 4.668 | 4.127 | 4.068 | 1.15 |
| Factory (FA) | 300.173 | 181.214 | 192.486 | 1.56 |
| Health (HE) | 30.058 | 23.967 | 25.047 | 1.20 |
| Hospitality (HO) | 247.490 | 74.984 | 215.516 | 1.15 |
| Ministry of Defence (MoD) (MO) | 1.108 | 1.502 | 0.924 | 1.20 |
| Office (OF) | 470.455 | 114.972 | 163.131 | 2.88 |
| Shop (SH) | 561.380 | 136.784 | 453.184 | 1.24 |
| Sport (SP) | 26.630 | 16.065 | 19.922 | 1.34 |
| Transport (TR) | 15.109 | 5.107 | 11.917 | 1.27 |
| Utilities (UT) | 9.260 | 8.311 | 4.211 | 2.20 |
| Warehouse (WA) | 246.163 | 172.011 | 150.016 | 1.64 |
[i] Source: DESNZ (2026).
Table 2
Percentages of non-domestic premises and floor areas of those premises aggregated by age periods from the National Buildings Database (NBD).
| AGE PERIOD | PREMISES (%) | FLOORSPACE (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-1919 | 35% | 18% |
| 1919–39 | 8% | 6% |
| 1940–75 | 20% | 22% |
| 1976–90 | 13% | 17% |
| 1991–2006 | 12% | 19% |
| 2007–21 | 11% | 16% |
| No age data available | 2% | 2% |
[i] Source: DESNZ (2026).
Figure 5
Percentage of self-contained units (SCUs)/buildings with mixed-use classifications per Carbon Reduction in the Built Environment (CaRBE) class.
Note: Dark blue shows the simple cases of a single premises occupying the whole SCU. All other colours show some degree of mixing and multiple occupancy. The 15 non-domestic CaRBE classes are shown as letters and match the order given in Table 1.
Source: DESNZ (2026).
Table 3
Percentile share of the top k premises per activity class for the five largest activity classes (Factory, Hospitality, Office, Shop and Warehouse) showing how much of the total floorspace for the class is occupied by the top k premises (100, 200, 500 and 1000).
| CaRBE CLASS | TOP 100 PREMISES | TOP 200 PREMISES | TOP 500 PREMISES | TOP 1000 PREMISES |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factory (FA) | 6.44% | 9.48% | 15.42% | 21.73% |
| Hospitality (HO) | 4.23% | 6.43% | 10.93% | 16.03% |
| Office (OF) | 6.65% | 9.07% | 13.70% | 18.81% |
| Shop (SH) | 2.29% | 3.51% | 6.20% | 9.72% |
| Warehouse (WA) | 6.08% | 9.47% | 15.79% | 22.20% |
[i] Source: DESNZ (2026).
Table 4
Comparison of benchmarks for a selection of activities from Sheffield Hallam University (SHU), the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers’ (CIBSE) TM46 and the National Buildings Database (NBD).
| ACTIVITY | SHU | TM46 | NBD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Offices | 194 | 245 | 100 |
| Hotels | 292 | 435 | 140 |
| Restaurants | 436 | 460 | 360 |
Figure 6
Box and whisker plots of the percentage of conditioned floorspace in the different activity classes for the Warehouse class in the National Buildings Database (NBD).
Figure 7
Office building archetypes devised by Ding & Zhou (2020) for a building energy model of Wuhan, China.
Source: By kind permission of Chao Ding.