UK Ties Extra Data Center Support to Jobs, Efficiency and Grid Access

UK Chancellor John Healey announced a new covenant for data centers Wednesday, tying extra government support for strategic projects to security, energy, community and efficiency commitments as the country expands AI capacity.

Projects are assessed on security and power-system costs, their effects on local communities, resource efficiency, and contributions to British employment, suppliers and AI hardware. All data centers are encouraged to meet them, but projects seeking enhanced government support must satisfy the tests.

Qualifying projects may receive help reserving grid connections, reallocating connections released by other projects and working with network operators to identify locations where capacity may be available before 2030. The policy targets a grid-connection bottleneck affecting UK data center projects.

The covenant also provides for temporary on-site generation for exceptionally strategic projects. The option is limited to cases where other measures cannot secure enough capacity in time. The government plans a tightly controlled framework, with conditions that include energy security.

“In return, critical data centres will get the grid connections they need, and, where necessary, be allowed to build onsite generation while they wait,” Healey said.

By 2030, the government’s estimate for UK AI data center capacity is at least 6 gigawatts. Its compute roadmap described that amount as three times the capacity available when the roadmap was written. The roadmap says demand could exceed that baseline if AI capabilities and adoption accelerate; the estimate does not confirm how much capacity will be built.

The covenant does not yet define which facilities qualify as strategic data centers or set out all additional criteria. The government says it will provide further details, but has not announced a date for them.