Tower tops stacks of paper

A typical medium-sized financial services firm based in London spends around #30,000 per month on storing paper-based information, according to chartered surveyors Drivers Jonas.

The firm says the monthly cost of storing a single filing cabinet in London's West End is #987, or #11,800 a year. In the City, it's #838 per month, compared to #449 in Manchester, #447 in Birmingham and #420 in Edinburgh.

As most firms have dozens of filing cabinets at least, the annual cost of storing paper can run