Summary
- The first phase would provide 107MW across 448,000 sq ft of data halls on a 74-acre site.
- Pre-existing grid arrangements connect the development to two independent transmission substations and battery storage.
- Consent removes a major development risk, while the pre-let, construction programme, and energisation sequence remain outstanding.
Tritax Big Box REIT has secured planning consent for a 107MW data centre at Manor Farm after the judicial-review period passed without preventing the project from advancing.
The proposed facility would occupy part of a 74-acre site inside the Slough Availability Zone, close to Heathrow and established fibre routes. A prospective pre-let is with solicitors following a competitive marketing process, although the occupier has not been identified and the agreement has not completed.
Tritax plans to deliver the building as a powered shell, providing the land, structure, and electricity infrastructure while leaving the customer or operating partner responsible for much of the technical fit-out. The company is targeting a 9.3% yield on cost for the first phase.
Power was assembled before the building
Tritax acquired Manor Farm and a 50% interest in a power joint venture in January 2025. Pre-existing grid agreements are intended to deliver up to 147MW to the site, divided between the 107MW first phase and a possible 40MW expansion.
The first phase is planned to provide approximately 448,000 sq ft of data halls across three floors. Earlier project information placed indicative expenditure at about £365 million, including land, construction, transaction costs, the joint-venture interest, and Tritax’s share of the power infrastructure.
Two independent transmission substations would supply the development, supported by co-located utility-scale battery storage. The arrangement is intended to provide resilience and bring forward energisation compared with a new connection application, which Tritax estimated could otherwise take more than ten years in the area.
Consent turns powered land into a deliverable asset
Planning approval removes one of the largest uncertainties attached to the site. Land with both consent and a credible electricity route can command a substantial premium in Slough, where existing data centre density has made new power and suitable plots difficult to secure.
The powered-shell model allows Tritax to draw on its experience delivering large logistics buildings without taking on the full operational exposure of a colocation platform. The boundary between landlord and occupier systems will need careful definition, particularly around high-voltage distribution, standby generation, UPS equipment, cooling plant, controls, commissioning, and performance guarantees.
A hyperscale customer may require an electrical topology and cooling architecture specific to its own design standards. Early civil, structural, and grid work must proceed without closing off the space, loading capacity, risers, external compounds, and hydraulic routes needed for the eventual fit-out.
Three-storey data halls add complexity. Heavy electrical and cooling equipment must be moved safely through the building, while vertical service distribution, structural loading, maintenance access, and the isolation of individual floors need to be incorporated into the design.
AI workloads may further alter the fit-out. High-density computing requires larger electrical blocks, direct liquid-cooling distribution, and heat-rejection systems designed for concentrated and rapidly changing loads. The shell must provide enough floor loading, ceiling height, plant space, and external compound capacity for equipment that may not be finally selected until the tenant completes its design.
Tritax’s 9.3% target exceeds the 6%–8% development yield historically associated with its logistics pipeline. The higher return reflects the scarcity and value of secured power, although the programme also carries more concentrated technical and delivery risk.
Equipment delays, tenant changes, grid works, and commissioning problems can all defer rental commencement. A prospective pre-let provides an important route to revenue certainty, but the agreement must define design responsibility, construction milestones, acceptance testing, and the treatment of delays outside either party’s direct control.
Slough remains one of Europe’s most established data centre markets because of its fibre density, proximity to London, cloud connectivity, and operating ecosystem. Those same characteristics have exhausted much of the readily available land and network capacity.
A 107MW first phase would be large by local standards and will require close management of construction traffic, noise, generators, cooling plant, and grid interfaces. Commissioning will need to proceed in stages so that electrical and mechanical systems can be tested without delaying the entire facility.
Tritax has assembled a wider UK pipeline of approximately 1GW through its power-first strategy. Manor Farm provides the first substantial test of whether that model can convert grid positions and development land into operating data centre income.
Consent gives the site a clear planning route, while the pre-let, final technical design, construction contracts, and energisation programme remain the next development gates. Until those are completed, the project is valuable powered land rather than operating capacity.
