A series of requirements should be placed on data centre development to tighten control of the sector’s growth and ensure power remains for housebuilding and other construction, an influential panel has urged.
The London Assembly’s Planning and Regeneration Committee warned that the wave of tech hubs powering artificial intelligence and other digital innovation were “often staggeringly energy-intensive”.
In a report published this week, the panel made 10 recommendations to avoid the capital’s housebuilding targets, net-zero goals and economy being “undermined by a lack of electricity capacity”.
The committee called for the London Plan to require energy-demand assessments for data centres; to mandate contributions to heat networks from the tech hubs “where appropriate”; and to enable “a more strategic approach to their development”.
It also said the government should introduce a separate use class for data centres under planning rules, to prevent warehouses being converted into hives of advanced computing with vastly greater power needs.
The assembly members called for the Greater London Authority (GLA) and London Councils to have places on the London Regional Energy Strategic Plan Board.
Meanwhile, the GLA’s infrastructure coordination service should publish the results of a data centre forecasting project “as soon as it is ready” and commit to “regular meetings” with neighbouring authorities, said the report.
The study also called on the mayor of London to accelerate retrofitting of homes and social infrastructure to reduce exposure to high energy costs.
Committee chair James Small-Edwards said: “We’ve already seen in west London what happens when there is insufficient local energy planning. In 2022, due to a proliferation of data centres, housing developments were being told that they would have to wait until 2037 – a full 15 years – to get a grid connection.”
He added: “If there is to be just one takeaway from this investigation it must be this: grid capacity cannot be an afterthought. We need a proactive, coordinated approach that ensures energy networks are anticipating heightened demand; that local plans integrate energy considerations; and that major energy users are managed strategically.”
Home Builders Federation technical director Rhodri Williams told Construction News: “It is essential that as we transition towards 100 per cent electric-only homes that Government ensures there is adequate investment being made in the supply network to support housing delivery.
“As we look to increase the supply of desperately needed new homes, utility providers need to abide by their statutory responsibilities and invest in their infrastructure such that it has capacity for existing and new housing needs.”
Tier one contractors such as Mace, McLaren and Skanska have ongoing data centre construction jobs in London – and analysis by construction data firm Barbour ABI this autumn showed the scale of the technology revolution.
It forecast that spending on new data centres in the UK would rise to more than £10bn per year by 2029, putting the emerging industry on a par with the education and industrial construction sectors, which were predicted to reach £10.5bn and £10.7bn respectively.
