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The UK votes for Labour: What does this mean for data centers?
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Georgia Butler
A DCD journalist focusing on Enterprise and workloads stories
Will the reds reduce the red tape?
July 08, 2024
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/opinions/the-uk-votes-for-labour-what-does-this-mean-for-data-centers/
On July 4, independence day took its own meaning in the UK. For the first time in 14 years, the UK voted for the Labour party, and the Conservatives moved out of Downing Street.
Labour titled its manifesto "Change," and for much of the UK population, who experienced a cost of living crisis while a series of scandals engulfed the outgoing government, this is exactly what they are hoping for.
But is change coming for the UK's data center industry?
The Labour manifesto addresses data centers directly, albeit briefly, stating: “We will ensure our industrial strategy supports the development of the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, removes planning barriers to new data centers.”
CyrusOne’s director of public policy for Europe, Emma Fryer, takes this optimistically.
Fryer notes that, while AI is considered an important area by all parties, the opposition has “consistently failed to associate this objective with the facilities that will host it, the land that will be needed to accommodate it, the energy that will power it, the planning reform that will enable it and the skilled people who will deliver it.”
She says: “This acknowledgment is a significant step forward, and by recognizing the critical role data centers play in supporting AI and digital innovation, the manifesto highlights an understanding of the interdependence between cutting-edge technology and robust infrastructure.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said during her first speech since the election that she had met with the prime minister and deputy prime minister to discuss planning reform, which Reeves sees as paramount to "kick start economic growth" and to "build[ing] the infrastructure we need."
During the speech on Monday, Reeves restated the government's commitment to reforming the National Planning Policy Framework - a document that guides major developments through the planning process but currently fails to address data centers - by the end of the month.
Reeves added that she had asked deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, who also heads up the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to revisit two planning applications for data centers - in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire - that had previously been rejected by local authorities.
The London hotspot issue
Many of the data centers in the UK, and England specifically, reside around London, spreading out to Slough to the west.
This is for a variety of reasons. The transatlantic cables that land in Cornwall and run to London via the M4 corridor create a well-connected digital highway that data center operators have taken advantage of, resulting in the well-known clusters including Slough, the Docklands, Park Royal, City, and Isle of Dogs.
In addition, London being the capital city has benefits to some industries - including the financial sector - which rely on high-speed digital functions, so being close is a key advantage.
This has, however, caused power constraints similar to those we see across the pond in Loudoun County, Virginia, and delayed projects.
In 2022, the Greater London Authority (GLA) published a document exploring the “West London Electrical Capacity Constraints,” which revealed that major London-based applicants (over circa 1MVA) to the Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks distributed network would have to “wait several years” to receive new electricity connections
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