TBH having fairly recently moved from your part of the country (which was blessed with a lot of empty warehouses) to a more “bumpkin” area I don’t think its actually a love of draughty old barns in winter, but sheer necessity.
There is still a manufacturing industry in this area (which is still in an economic boom) so most warehouses / industrial units are either still in use or don’t stay empty for long (and are therefore more closely guarded!)
it was excellent when in 2002-2005 we were getting fairly new and sometimes even heated(!) warehouses but the smashy smashy crew fucked it up for everyone (often trashing working plumbing systems :hopeless:) and now lots more places are locked down hard..
