Summary
- The latest UK planning digest records nine new data centre-related applications and no decisions.
- The tracker now lists 93 applications awaiting decisions, 277 projects tracked, and 1,123MW of declared live capacity.
- New filings include temporary electrical infrastructure for the Cambois campus and new data centre proposals in Manchester.
The UK data centre planning pipeline added nine new applications in the latest weekly update, while no tracked projects received decisions during the period.
AI Data Centre’s planning tracker recorded 93 applications awaiting decisions and 277 projects in its wider database as of 28 August. Declared live capacity across the tracked pipeline stands at 1,123MW, while 96 projects have been recorded as permitted during 2026.
The largest new entry is connected to the proposed Cambois Data Centre Campus in Northumberland. Application 26/02919/FUL covers a temporary 60kV substation and associated infrastructure intended to support construction and early operation of the wider campus.
The filing was received on 18 August and remains undecided, with consultation running into September. Other recent Cambois applications include temporary 11/33kV and 20kV substations, underlining how much enabling electrical infrastructure is required before a large campus can begin operating.
Manchester was another hotspot, with two applications relating to land south of Bower Street. The proposals cover a data centre comprising two commercial units alongside external plant, substations, fencing, landscaping, access works, and ancillary infrastructure.
Other entries in the weekly data include condition-discharge and supporting applications around North Acton Road and Premier Park in west London, an advertisement-consent filing associated with the LDC1 project near South Mimms, and a condition-discharge application at the former Didcot A power station site.
The pipeline is moving through enabling works
The mix demonstrates why a simple count of planning applications can overstate the number of entirely new data centre projects arriving in a week. Several entries relate to substations, conditions, or subsequent phases of schemes already in the planning system rather than nine wholly new campuses.
Those supporting applications are still operationally important. Temporary substations, fibre conditions, construction employment plans, noise testing, and other technical requirements are the mechanisms through which a permitted or proposed site moves towards something that can actually be built and energised.
Cambois is a particularly clear example. The temporary electrical applications are tied to a much larger data centre campus, so their significance lies less in the individual application footprint than in what they reveal about the sequencing of power infrastructure around a major development.
The planning data also arrives while central government is trying to accelerate large digital-infrastructure development. Its AI Growth Zone programme is explicitly intended to improve access to power and planning support, while wider planning reforms have sought to shorten parts of the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project process.
Government policy does not remove the need for individual sites to satisfy local and national planning requirements. Data centres still have to address land use, noise, backup generation, transport, biodiversity, water, grid infrastructure, and cumulative environmental effects, with the balance changing significantly depending on project size and location.
The 1,123MW figure should also be interpreted carefully. It represents declared live capacity in the tracker rather than a forecast that 1.123GW will necessarily be constructed. Projects can be revised, delayed, refused, withdrawn, or built in phases, and headline power figures may refer to grid or campus capacity rather than IT load.
What the tracker does show is the volume of schemes progressing through the planning system at the same time. Ninety-three applications awaiting decisions means local authorities and developers are handling a substantial queue even before the construction and grid-connection stages begin.
With nine new entries and no decisions in the latest update, that queue has edged higher. The more useful measure over coming months will be how quickly large projects move from outline plans and enabling applications into final consent, firm power, construction contracts, and commissioned capacity.
