Chancellor Rachel Reeves will set out her vision for UK data centres with a key US client this week.
In a meeting with US data centre operator CoreWeave, Reeves will set out a government commitment to encourage more developments to support IT demands throughout the UK, according to the Treasury.
The meeting with CoreWeave, which recently announced a £1bn investment to build two UK data centres, forms part of Reeves’ three-day trip to the US and Canada in which she is also courting major American investors Blackstone, BNY Mellon and CyrusOne.
Reeves said: “By rebuilding Britain we can make every part of the country better off. Aiming to have data centres across the country is part of that.
“We are already reviewing two planning applications in the South East, but I’m determined to see new digital investments up and down the UK.”
Data centres have been a target for the new Labour government as it pursues economic growth. Shortly after taking office, housing secretary Angela Rayner called in two planning applications for data centres on greenbelt land which had been rejected by their local councils.
A few weeks later she launched a consultation on whether data centres should be considered as nationally significant infrastructure projects, which would allow them to bypass local planning requirements.
CoreWeave, a cloud startup that calls itself an “AI hyperscaler”, aims to operate 28 data centres around the world by the end of the year – double the number it operated in 2023. It has a partnership with chipmaker Nvidia, which became the most valuable company in the world in June.
In May, it announced a £1bn investment to open two new UK data centres this year, with more planned in 2025. CoreWeave joins Google and Microsoft among major tech companies that have recently announced high-value data centre projects in the UK.
Data centre construction has flourished as AI use becomes more entrenched, with real estate advisors CBRE predicting UK demand would hit new heights in 2024.
Many firms have reported high returns from data centre construction in the past year, including Winvic, Skanska and McLaren.
