Summary
- The latest planning digest recorded five new UK data-centre applications and one status change.
- The tracker now lists 288 applications, including 103 awaiting decisions, with 1,123MW declared in the weekly pipeline measure.
- North Lanarkshire, North Tyneside, Anglesey, Enfield, and Brent accounted for the week's new applications.
Five new UK data-centre planning applications were recorded in the latest weekly pipeline, adding schemes in North Lanarkshire, North Tyneside, Anglesey, Enfield, and Brent as developers continue to spread activity beyond the established west London cluster.
AI Data Centre, which tracks UK local-authority planning registers, reported 288 applications in its live database by 11 September, with 103 awaiting decisions. Its weekly digest lists 1,123MW of declared capacity and one status change alongside the five new applications.
The largest new application highlighted in the current digest is a proposed green data-centre development at Chapelhall in North Lanarkshire. The planning description covers the facility together with landscaping, access works, and associated infrastructure.
The other new filings extend across North Tyneside, Anglesey, Enfield, and Brent, illustrating the range of markets now attracting data-centre proposals. London remains heavily represented in the national pipeline, but Scotland, Wales, northern England, and other regional markets are becoming increasingly important as land and power constraints shape development strategy.
The tracker’s current digest shows 288 applications, including 103 awaiting decisions. Declared electrical capacity across the weekly pipeline measure stood at 1,123MW, although not every planning application publishes a meaningful megawatt figure. The gap between project count and declared capacity is important because planning databases can show how much development activity is under way without necessarily revealing the true electrical load associated with every scheme.
Planning activity spreads beyond London
The largest concentration remains around west London. Hillingdon, Ealing, and Old Oak and Park Royal together account for a substantial share of tracked applications, reflecting the established data-centre and connectivity ecosystem stretching through London and towards Slough.
North Lanarkshire has become another significant cluster, with multiple applications and hundreds of megawatts of declared capacity. Scotland offers access to renewable generation and land, but individual projects still depend on the location and timing of network capacity.
Northumberland is also emerging as a development area. Separate live planning data shows several applications in the county, including reserved-matters work at the former Cambois power-station site and an application for a temporary 60kV substation intended to support construction and early operation of the proposed Cambois Data Centre Campus.
Those projects demonstrate why planning counts cannot be separated from electrical infrastructure. Data-centre developments often require parallel applications for substations, transmission connections, access roads, generators, cooling plant, and other works that determine whether a consented building can actually operate.
The UK government has classified data centres as critical national infrastructure and continues to support development as part of its wider digital and AI strategy. Local planning authorities, however, still have to assess schemes against land use, transport, environmental effects, building scale, noise, and local infrastructure.
That produces an increasingly complex national pipeline. Some applications are speculative or at an early stage, while others have customers, secured land, and advanced power strategies. A headline megawatt total therefore does not translate directly into capacity likely to open on a particular timetable.
The current flow of five new applications nevertheless shows that developers are continuing to replenish the planning pipeline even as existing projects wait for decisions. The next constraint is not simply whether councils grant consent, but whether each site can align planning, power, construction, and customer demand closely enough to reach operation.
