E D I T O R ' S Q U E S T I O N
WHAT KEY FACTORS SHOULD LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND DEVELOPERS PRIORITISE TO BUILD SUSTAINABLE AND RESILIENT DATA CENTRES THAT SUPPORT LONG-TERM GROWTH ACROSS THE UK , BEYOND JUST LONDON ?
As UK cities give data centres the green light as the government gears up for growth , we ask leading data centre experts for their thoughts on how local authorities and developers can work together to prioritise growth beyond the capital .
esearch from data
R centre specialists , Onnec , has found local authorities in the UK ’ s 20 biggest cities have overwhelmingly greenlit planning permission for data centre projects , with only three out of 88 applications being declined . A further five were withdrawn , while plans for the East Havering Data Centre Campus are listed as undecided .
These findings come from extensive desk research of 44 councils over a month , to find planning applications in the last five years that mention ‘ data centres ’ or ‘ data centers ’.
The three projects declined were all in Sheffield , with the reasons being that proposals were ‘ poor quality design ’, ‘ visually unattractive ’, ‘ inappropriate developments which would cause harm to the openness of the Green Belt ’ and ‘ out of keeping with the character and quality of the wider landscape ’.
In September 2024 , the UK designated data centres as critical national infrastructure and pledged to review rejected planning decisions for sites in Iver , Buckinghamshire , and Abbots Langley , Hertfordshire . These plans are part of the government ’ s drive for economic growth , with the government announcing £ 6.3 billion of global investment in UK data centres . These sites will provide the computing data and data storage to give the UK the infrastructure required to train and deploy AI technologies .
Government support is vital , but focus must move beyond London
The UK government has been focused on supporting and protecting a data centre industry that is powering the digital economy and is crucial to AI development . The Department for Science , Innovation and Technology ( DSIT ) has been central to this , explaining via an FOI that :
“ Since its formation , the Department has been engaging positively and proactively with the sector and investors , coordinating across the government to ensure a consistent pro-growth approach and that data centre needs are considered in wider governmental policy . DSIT has a dedicated team of officials focusing on the security , resilience and growth of data infrastructure , including data centres , and has been undertaking internal civil service analysis to investigate the blockers to growth of the sector . Recently , DSIT designated data centres as Critical National Infrastructure , recognising their fundamental importance to the UK and the digital economy . This move aims to reassure businesses that the UK is a safe place to invest in data centres .”
www . intelligentdatacentres . com 31