The analysis excluded extensions to existing data centre sites, revisions to past applications\u00a0 and applications for other developments which included a data centre as part of the plans, meaning the true figure for the number of data centres seeking planning approval is likely to be significantly higher.<\/p>\n
The surge in applications lays bare the scale of the demand for compute by the nascent AI industry, with large language models requiring more and more power to operate, and property businesses racing to re-invent themselves as data centre developers to cash in on investor appetite.<\/p>\n Dame Dawn Childs<\/a>, chief executive of Pure Data Centres, told City AM: \u201cWith this AI bubble that everyone\u2019s talking about\u2026because of the increased valuations for powered land, everyone\u2019s trying to get a piece of the pie, and that creates a bunch of fizziness.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing lots of people who are sending out on a daily basis: \u2018we\u2019ve got this significant plot of land with all of these megawatts of power in the middle of nowhere, it\u2019ll be an AI gigafactory, buy it for a gazillion pounds\u2019 \u2013 they\u2019re absolutely trying to get increased valuations for scrappy industrial land.\u201d<\/p>\n The lion\u2019s share of the demand came from AI applications by Magnificent 7 firms, Childs said, but added that even without AI, there would likely have been a significant increase in applications due to increased cloud computing adoption across the British economy.<\/p>\n The analysis found that around half of the planning applications were situated in London and the South East, regions known as a European hotspot for data centres, though there were also signs of a growing number of data centres being constructed across different parts of the UK. Seven different applications were submitted in Wales during the year, along with another seven in the East Midlands, four in the North West and four in Yorkshire.<\/p>\n The analysis also found property firms becoming more and more creative over the sites chosen to redevelop into data centres in a scramble to gain planning approval. In Watford, developers picked the site of an abandoned Mercure hotel to build a data centre, while in Hackney, the old Truman brewery has been earmarked for conversion<\/a>. In Nottinghamshire, a shuttered coal mine could be turned into a data centre, while in Chesterfield, a former landfill site could find a new lease of life churning out AI content.<\/p>\n These more ambitious developments were being led by technological advances by data centre hyperscalers, Childs said.<\/p>\n \u201cPreviously they needed their cloud regions to be within a certain geography, driven by the cost of power, the availability of power and the price of land,\u201d Childs said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve extended that margin now and for some of them they\u2019ve actually doubled the circumference within which they\u2019d be happy to have a child data centre site linked back to their central hub in a cloud region.\u201d<\/p>\n The surge in data centre planning applications is also thought to have been propelled by the launch of the government\u2019s AI Opportunities Action Plan<\/a> just under a year ago, in which it called for the creation of \u2018AI Growth Zones\u2019 \u2013 areas designed to build AI infrastructure and attract outside investment and expertise. To date more than 200 submissions for AI Growth Zones have been made by local authorities across the UK.<\/p>\n Planning and power challenges<\/p>\n But the total number of AI data centres ultimately built is likely to be substantially lower than the number of planning applications filed, amid competition for investment and a scarcity of power supplies.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s first UK owned and operated data centre<\/a>, which opened last year, suffered a series of setbacks before it was ultimately completed.<\/p>\n When the first planning application for the site was submitted in 2018, Thames Water warned<\/a> it had \u201cidentified an inability of the existing water network infrastructure to accommodate the needs of this development proposal\u201d, while a utilities report found<\/a> the local power supply was inadequate and a new 6km-long cable would have to be dug underground (including drilling under the M25) to connect up to a second National Grid substation.<\/p>\n As a result of power constraints, the \u201cbring your own power\u201d model is also being seen more and more across Europe, in which data centre developers partner with energy specialists to ensure power demands can be met, Childs said.<\/p>\n \u201cInvestors are either cautious and savvy and really understand the market\u2026 or they are new entrants who are just throwing their hat in the ring to jump on the bandwagon.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/book.jpg\"\/)
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