Data centres: a quid pro quo

The Government’s new "Data Centre Covenant” is a recognition of that reality. As AI drives an ever-growing need for computing capacity, ministers want more of the infrastructure underpinning it to be built here in the UK, rather than relying on facilities overseas.

For the built environment, contending with sluggish development and major viability and infrastructure challenges, that growing demand presents a significant opportunity - but data centres come with challenges of their own. They require huge amounts of power, compete for already constrained grid capacity and can face acute local opposition, particularly where communities struggle to see what such large, cumbersome developments offer them in return.

The new Covenant is the Government’s attempt to square that circle. It promises support for critical data centres to access the grid and, where connections are not available, opens the door to on-site power generation. In return, developers will be expected to invest in local communities, create jobs and protect local water supplies. That quid pro quo could make the consultation around new schemes particularly interesting. If developments are arriving with not only sizeable buildings but potentially their own power generation, the conversation with communities is likely to become more complex, particularly around how the need for that infrastructure is balanced against what it delivers locally.

The question is therefore no longer really whether we need more data centres, but where we put them, how we power them and what communities get from them. In the race to be an AI powerhouse, the digital revolution is going to need a physical development boom to support it, and making sure local communities benefit from that boom could be key to getting it built.