In another sign of continued market commitment to UK data centre expansion in the second half of 2024, a new entrant (Latos Data Centres) has announced plans to roll out hyperscale and edge facilities around the country. 

This follows a string of eye-catching UK data centre announcements during Autumn 2024. In September, Amazon Web Services announced an £8bn UK data centre pipeline, an announcement which was touted by the UK Government as reflective of the growing strength of the UK’s digital economy. 

In October, the UK’s Tech Secretary, Peter Kyle, welcomed what he saw as a ‘vote of confidence’ in Britain following investments in UK data centres of £25bn announced since July 2024. These announcements included Blackstone committing £10bn to develop Europe’s largest AI data centre, which will be based in Northumberland.

Government is looking to play its part, including with the recent designation of data centre assets as “national critical infrastructure” in the UK, a move which underscored support for the sector and inbound investment.

When looking ahead, certain trends emerge. Firstly, domestic and international demand for data centre capacity is strong and increasing. Market forces are triggering capex investment in the asset class and, as AI use cases crystalise, this race to computing power and data storage only looks set to continue. 

Secondly, increasing edge infrastructure remains a priority, providing capacity closer to users. However, with edge solutions (which are developed in metropolitan or semi-metropolitan environments) come inevitable planning and zoning discussions. The UK Government’s touted reforms to planning rules for infrastructure projects are eagerly anticipated. 

Finally, but perhaps most crucially, players will be mindful of the challenges presented by data centre power consumption. The well-documented challenges in the Irish data centre market, where power demand has applied the brakes to growth in the sector, provide clear evidence of the necessity of securing long term power supply. 

That said, those players that can navigate the needs of power and planning in data centre development are likely to find that demand for capacity in the UK is growing. The recent spike in announced projects in the UK certainly underlines that conclusion.