Plans have been approved for a new £10bn data centre in Northumberland as the UK ramps up is compute infrastructure.
Northumberland County Council approved the plans on Tuesday for the 540,000 sq metre site, which was submitted by QTS, a data centre company owned by investment group Blackstone.
The centre, which will be built in the village of Cambois, is expected to create over 1,000 construction jobs for the next several years as well as hundreds of long-term jobs to operate the site.
QTS said it is setting targets for local apprenticeships and internships to boost technical skills in the area. These targets will be managed by an employment skills coordinator who will work with the local council.
“This proud corner of Northumberland will be home to one of western Europe’s largest data hubs – a multi-billion-pound vote of confidence in our county’s future,” said council leader Glen Sanderson.
“We can now look forward to work progressing as this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity takes shape in Northumberland.”
Northumberland County Council will use the land transaction proceeds to establish a £110m fund to drive long-term investment in the region.
“We are honoured to be granted this unique opportunity by Northumberland County Council,” said QTS chairman and CEO, Chad Williams.
“We are committed to this opportunity and dedicated to supporting the prosperity of the local area.”
The new data centre will also support the UK’s compute capabilities, a key goal of the tech department’s flagship strategy, the AI Opportunities Action Plan.
The plan included the establishment of AI Growth Zones, areas where planning and construction requirements for data centres are simplified to streamline the building of compute infrastructure.
So far, the only named growth zone is in the Oxfordshire village of Culham. Other areas have been invited by the government to submit applications for the scheme.
“All signs point towards a Northern data centre boom,” according to Scott Constable, a director at the Manchester-based data centre company Vespertec, in response to the Northuberland approval.
“This announcement is a huge win for the North’s data centre industry, and more computing power will vastly improve access to efficiency tools like AI and the cloud for regional businesses and institutions.”
In January, American group CoreWeave announced it was establishing two new UK data centres, in Crawley and London’s Docklands.
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