By Shoosmiths legal director Matt Nixon and partner Liam Phillips
In the midst of the Labour government’s push for increased rates of house building, the government is also making moves to unlock other economic developments, including data centres. The Party’s manifesto identified the planning system as being a ‘major break’ on economic growth, in particular highlighting that reform will need to remove the existing planning barriers to new data centres.
Identifying data centres as infrastructure, the proposed NPPF inserts the need to consider them as a way to support the modern digital economy and to also consider appropriate locations when preparing local plans. As well as data centres providing the necessary infrastructure to enable expansion of existing data consuming services, such development also unlocks the corresponding technical and engineering jobs to the market.
Whilst the consultation documents also flag the potential of data centres being incorporated within the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) route, it is not yet clear whether this would actually be a welcome addition to meaningful speed up delivery. Currently the Town and Country Planning Act route is the quicker and preferable route for some forms of development, as seen by the range of planning applications for 49.9MW solar farms across the country (being 0.1MW below the threshold for NSIPs).
To highlight the political focus, Angela Rayner has already decided to recover two significant appeals for large data centres which were rejected locally by Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. With both sites located within the green belt it will bring into sharp focus the practical realities of dealing with the need to demonstrate very special circumstances alongside the proposed amendments to the NPPF and the introduction of the ‘grey belt’. The term “grey belt” remains ill-defined and the subject of contention. As always, the devil will be in the detail of the final version that comes forward, but clearly more refined drafting is required as identified by the various consultation responses focusing on this area.
Regardless of what form of wording is to be incorporated in the NPPF, particularly with regard to green and grey belts, the political and local sensitivities will inevitably lead to numerous discussions (read arguments) as to interpretation and application in appeals that will likely end up in the courts. Echoes of the raft of the court cases that followed the introduction of the ‘tilted balance’ come to mind.
Notwithstanding the policy position that follows, the exponential growth of AI and the related functions and applications necessitates the rapid demand for such data centres. As with all significant planning proposals, it will likely attract the attention of local communities and potential objections. For example, local residents of a Wiltshire retirement village have raised their concerns as their physical and mental health that could result from the new data centre, including interruption to sleep, increased noise and light emissions.
One of the clear and identified potential obstacle to delivery is power. Not only is the availability of electricity a key factor when identifying potential sites for development, it will also be a readily accessible limb of objection to schemes going forward. The power constraints faced by the national grid are not new, but the rapid expansion of demand from data centres could see the already constrained grid put under ever more pressure that will require innovative solutions. Furthermore, a growing issue is the access and availability of water, used for cooling the systems. Water availability or scarcity is a growing issue in the UK to support sustainable economic growth. Areas of within Sussex are already needing to demonstrate ‘water neutrality’ when consenting relevant development and water scarcity in Cambridge is continuing to receive specific attention.
Overall, the changes are being seen as a positive step to create greater certainty which should provide an attractive offering for investment into the growing market.
