Flaw space Is the rise in self-storage a sign of decluttered lives, or of housing in crisis?

Forget the gym membership and juicing regime, the new must-have to boost personal wellbeing is a self-storage unit.

- Robert Booth

At least that is the claim from a new company urging spacesqueezed renters to accept they cannot afford a home with enough cupboards in today's housing system and instead to sweep their clutter into a rented lock-up.

Hold, which is opening five storage sites in London, is trying to persuade householders that spending £270 a month on a lock-up is a lifestyle choice with the potential to "promote feelings of calm and relaxation" and even boost mental health.

Figures show more than 100 storage complexes opened in British towns and cities in the past three years, and that the sector now generates £1bn a year in revenue.

Increasingly, the facilities offer communal areas, hot-desking and creative studios to make them a more palatable extension of home.

But the Generation Rent campaign group has now warned that far from being a lifestyle choice that could boost wellbeing, the storage boom should be seen an "indictment of our housing crisis".

"Self-storage warehouses sprouting everywhere ... won't come close to solving our problems," said Ben Twomey, Generation Rent's chief executive.