Summary
- Harworth is negotiating with several counterparties over a second hyperscale site with planning consent and power connections.
- The company has not disclosed the location, capacity, purchaser, price, connection date, or detailed consent position.
- The opportunity forms part of a claimed 0.8GW power-enabled land bank that includes connections either conditionally secured or still in the pipeline.
Harworth Group has entered advanced negotiations with several counterparties over the sale of a second UK site capable of supporting a hyperscale data centre.
The regeneration and property company said the site has planning consent and power connections, but has not disclosed its location, acreage, electrical capacity, intended purchaser, or proposed sale price.
Harworth said the opportunity could produce total value gains above those generated by its first hyperscale transaction, a £106.6 million land sale to Microsoft at Skelton Grange in Leeds.
The comparison relates to value gains rather than necessarily to the eventual sale consideration. Harworth creates value through land assembly, remediation, planning, utility work, and site preparation before selling land to an operator or developer.
Planning and power narrow the development risk
The new opportunity remains a negotiation rather than a completed transaction, but its stated consent and power position moves it beyond a speculative search for data centre land.
Hyperscale developers place a premium on sites where planning and electricity risks have been reduced. Grid queues, reinforcement programmes, local opposition, and lengthy consent processes can otherwise extend delivery schedules before specialist construction begins.
Harworth has not said whether the undisclosed site’s connection is already energised, contracted for a future date, conditionally secured, or dependent on network reinforcement. It has also not specified whether the planning consent is explicitly for a data centre or whether a buyer would need to amend the approved scheme.
Those details will influence the site’s value and programme. An energised plot with a detailed data centre consent has a different route to construction from land carrying an outline permission and a connection that remains subject to utility works.
The company is speaking to several prospective counterparties, which could create competitive tension around the sale. No exclusivity, exchange, purchaser, or completion timetable has been announced.
Until a transaction is agreed, the facility design, capacity, operator, and construction schedule remain open. Harworth’s announcement establishes that there is market interest in the site, not that a hyperscale campus has entered development.
Powered land becomes a larger portfolio strategy
The second opportunity sits within what Harworth describes as a 0.8GW power-enabled land bank. The company said the capacity has not yet been fully realised or reflected in its current European Public Real Estate Association net disposal value.
Harworth’s chief executive, Lynda Shillaw, said the portfolio’s power connections are either conditionally secured or in the pipeline. The 0.8GW figure should therefore be treated as a range of prospective site opportunities rather than operating, energised, or construction-ready data centre capacity.
Individual plots will be at different stages of planning, network agreement, remediation, commercial negotiation, and technical development. Harworth also expects some of the land to support other power-intensive sectors, while smaller digital-infrastructure opportunities may include colocation and edge facilities.
Skelton Grange provides the clearest example of the company’s model. Harworth agreed a conditional £106.6 million sale of 48 acres to Microsoft in 2024, split across two plots.
The first 27-acre plot completed for £51.2 million, while the second 21-acre phase is linked to a further £53.2 million. Harworth is also delivering remediation and enabling works.
Microsoft’s planning application covers approximately 500,000 sq ft across three data centre halls and supporting buildings. Leeds planners resolved to approve the scheme subject to conditions and completion of a Section 106 agreement.
The project shows how a landowner can create data centre value before the operator begins the specialist facility build. Brownfield land may require remediation, access works, drainage, utility coordination, planning, and power arrangements before it is suitable for a hyperscale development.
The customer then takes responsibility for the data centre design, mechanical and electrical installation, commissioning, IT deployment, and operation, depending on the structure of the agreement.
Harworth is increasing its exposure to powered land as part of a wider portfolio shift towards industrial and logistics assets. It wants those assets to represent 85 per cent of the portfolio by 2029, compared with 70 per cent at the end of 2025.
The strategy can generate large but irregular gains alongside rental and conventional development income. It also concentrates delivery risk around grid agreements, planning milestones, remediation costs, purchaser negotiations, and completion conditions.
Harworth reported £99.5 million of available liquidity at 30 June 2026 and a pro forma loan-to-value ratio of 20.4 per cent at that date, falling to 15.6 per cent by the date of its update, based on December 2025 valuations.
The next announcement will need to put detail around the second site. A named purchaser, location, contracted power capacity, sale value, consent status, and completion conditions would show how repeatable the Skelton Grange model has become.
For now, Harworth has demonstrated that another consented and power-enabled site has attracted several counterparties. The megawatts, buyer, money, and delivery programme remain undisclosed.
