Top 7 Upcoming Data Centers in the United Kingdom (2026)

Nikitha Valike March 16, 2026

12 min read

The UK had around 1.6 GW of data centre capacity in 2024, with Greater London standing as Europe’s largest data centre market. Collectively, data centers in the UK contribute an annual gross value added (GVA) of EUR 4.7 billion to the economy. New hubs are emerging in Manchester and South Wales, with the national capacity projected to rise to between 3.3 GW and 6.3 GW by 2030.

Currently, data centres account for about 2.5% of the UK’s total electricity consumption, which is expected to quadruple by 2030. As these facilities continue to boost sectors such as AI, cloud computing, and financial services, their role in the UK’s digital economy is becoming more critical.

In this blog, we highlight the Top 7 upcoming data centers in the United Kingdom, ranked by capacity.

Top Upcoming Data Centers in the UK 2026:

Project Name	Developer	Location	Capacity	Stage/Condition
Elsham Tech Park	Elsham Tech Park Limited	North Lincolnshire	1 GW	Planning application submitted in 2025; construction expected to begin in 2027.
Cambois Data Center	QTS Data Center and Renaissance Land Ltd	Northumberland, near Blyth	720 MW	Planning permission approved; QTS has begun to submit further details for approval.
East Havering Data Centre Campus	Digital Reef Limited	London Borough of Havering	600 MW	Planning
Motherwell Data Center Development	Apatura, through Apatura DC Project 7 Limited	Motherwell, North Lanarkshire	550 MW	Planning
Humber Tech Park	Humber Tech Park Ltd.	North Lincolnshire, near the Humber Estuary	384 MW	Planning permission granted in Summer 2024; currently in the design stage.
Manor Farm site-Data Center Dev	Tritax Big Box REIT Limited	Near Heathrow Airport, London	147 MW (107 MW Phase 1, 40 MW Phase 2)	Planning application for Phase 1 submitted; determination expected in H2 2025; construction for Phase 1 likely to begin in H1 2026.
Iver Data Center Development	Corescale	Iver, Buckinghamshire	140 MW	Planning

Elsham Tech Park:

The Elsham Tech Park is a proposed AI data center campus planned in North Lincolnshire, next to Elsham Wolds Industrial Estate. This 1 GW data center will span 1.5 million sqm (16.1 million sq ft), making it one of the largest in the UK.

The project is owned and will be developed by Elsham Tech Park Limited. It will feature 15 data halls and an on-site energy center that will generate 49.9 MW to fulfill the power requirements. It will also feature a connection enabling waste heat to be funnelled to a district heating system.

A planning application for Elsham Tech Park was submitted in 2025. The construction is expected to begin in 2027, with the first phase of the campus set to open in 2029.

About EUR 10 billion is likely to be invested in the campus, and it will provide about 900 full-time jobs once operational. It will use closed-loop systems that consume minimal water to cool the servers.

Cambois Data Center:

QTS Data Center and Renaissance Land Limited are building a data center campus in Northumberland, UK. The project will be the UK's first data center being developed on land, which was a former Power Station site in Cambois, near Blyth.

The project is funded by affiliates of Blackstone, and the digital infrastructure is provided by QTS data centers. The project is owned by Renaissance Land Limited.

The campus features 10 data center buildings, each with a capacity of 72 MW, totalling the campus capacity to 720 MW. The campus will span up to 540,000 sqm (5.8 million sq ft), and each building is set to span 54,000 sqm (581,250 sq ft). The site will use waterless free-cooling chillers and will also feature an on-site substation. The planning permission is approved, and QTS has begun to submit further details for approval by Northumberland County Council.

East Havering Data Centre Campus:

The East Havering Data Centre Campus is being developed as a 600 MW data center with green energy infrastructure & Ecology Park project. It is being developed by Digital Reef Limited and will be located on a 113-hectare Ecology Park site on Dunnings Lane and Fen Road in the London Borough of Havering.

The project will have a maximum developable area floorspace of 400,000 m2 with up to 340,000 m2 data centre floorspace plus associated external plant and security. The remaining 60,000 m2 will be for heated horticulture facilities.

The data centers will include rooftop and external heating, cooling, ventilation, and a backup power plant mounted with solar PV panels, rainwater harvesting systems, and storage tanks. Each build zone would accommodate between 1 to 6 data center buildings with varied building sizes between 8,000 m2 and 60,000m2 GEA, depending on plot size and building data capacity requirements. The project is currently in the planning stage.

Motherwell Data Center Development:

The Motherwell Data Center project was announced in June 2025 and is being developed by Apatura through its subsidiary Apatura DC Project 7 Limited. The project will be developed at the former Ravenscraig Steelworks site in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire.

This is a 550 MW data center campus along with a BESS project with an investment of EUR 3.9 billion (USD 3.9 billion). The project will span a 160-acre site on the land to the east of the Wishaw Deviation freight railway line and known as SevenFourEight.

The Motherwell Data Center project is grid-connected and will harness the project. The project is expected to become operational by 2030 and is in the planning stage.

Humber Tech Park:

Humber Tech Park is an AI data center project in North Lincolnshire, near the Humber Estuary. Once operational, it will be one of the largest centers in Europe. The planning permission was granted in the Summer of 2024. This project was approved by the North Lincolnshire Council’s planning committee in August 2024 and will be developed by Humber Tech Park Ltd.

Humber Tech Park is being developed with an investment of EUR 3 billion. The data center campus will span 309,000 sqm (GEA) Data center is split between three buildings on the west side. These buildings are capable of an IT load of 384 MW, and the associated landscape will include infrastructure, including an electrical substation with a maximum height of 8 metres and a district heating unit with a maximum height of 8 metres.

The south-east site of the project has been allocated for the provision of commercial glasshouses that will be heated via the heat generated from the data center, providing an opportunity to grow crops using low-carbon waste heat. The project site has access to underground gas pipelines, a water pipeline, and Hornsea One Windfarm Export cables across the eastern part of the site. The project is currently in the design stage.

Manor Farm site-Data Center Development:

The Manor Farm site-Data Center Development is a data center near London's Heathrow Airport. It will be developed by Tritax Big Box REIT Limited and will span a 74-acre site at Manor Farm in the Slough Availability Zone, near Heathrow Airport, which is a key FLAP-D prime EMEA data center location. Simultaneously, Tritax Big Box REIT Limited has purchased a 50% share in a joint venture with a leading European renewable and low-carbon energy power generator for this data center campus. This joint venture ensures grid connections to two independent transmission substations in addition to co-located utility-scale battery storage.

The project is built by the JV, is adjacent to key data cable routes, providing high levels of connectivity. The entire data campus will have a capacity of 147 MW, and phase 1 will have 107 MW. The planning application for phase 1 has been submitted, and determination is expected in H2 2025. The construction of phase 1 is likely to begin in H1 of 2026. The site offers potential for phase 2 with 40 MW capacity, which is still under the planning stage. The completion and income recognition for phase 1 are expected in H2 2027.

Phase 1 of Manor Farm data center is expected to be one of the most advanced data centers in Europe, totalling 448,000 sq. ft of data halls across three floors. Phase 1 will be developed on a “powered shell” basis, which means leasing a partially built data center with basic infrastructure. The indicative capex is estimated as EUR 365 million and is inclusive of land, construction, JV stake acquisition, transaction costs and fees, and the Company’s 50% share of the power-related infrastructure costs.

Iver Data Center Development:

The Corescale Iver Data Center Development is a 140 MW data center campus near campus in Iver, Buckinghamshire. Though initially faced challenges, the project received approval in December 2024, after Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, on behalf of the government, overruled Buckinghamshire Council's initial refusal.

The project will span a 16.5-hectare site situated east of the M25 motorway, along Slough Road (A4007), and south of the Iver Substation. The initial planning application included a two-storey building offering 48 MW of IT capacity, supported by a 150MW substation. The project is currently in the planning stage.

Conclusion:

The data centers in the United Kingdom continue to rise, with 8% of the contribution from the digital economy to the total UK GDP. Cities like London, Manchester, and other regional areas like Cardiff, Newcastle, and Leeds have major data centers through leading providers such as ARK Data Centres and Equinix that are using advanced technology to deliver reliable and scalable data center services across the UK.

Upcoming projects such as Elsham Tech Park, Cambois Data Center, East Havering Data Centre Campus, and Humber Tech Park highlight the UK’s commitment to sustainable digital infrastructure for the future.

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