UK to continue AI data center construction, minister says
Growth minister Dan Tomlinson said government support would depend on projects investing in local communities and creating jobs.
Britain will keep treating data centers as essential infrastructure, growth minister Dan Tomlinson told the Financial Times, signaling continued backing for construction as artificial intelligence use expands across the economy.
Tomlinson said wider adoption of AI would require additional data centers. But government support would come with conditions: projects would need to bring investment to local communities and generate employment.
He said Britain had learned from the approach to construction in parts of the United States and would pursue stronger oversight. His comments come amid protests by UK residents at locations earmarked for data centers.
The UK Compute Roadmap, a policy document addressing rising AI power demand, sets out a need for at least 6GW of data center computing capacity by 2030. Britain had already eased the approval process through the AI Growth Zones initiative, which former prime minister Keir Starmer introduced in 2025.
