UK risks losing AI leadership without data strategy, government warned
The UK needs a strategy to meet growing demand for data centres or risk losing its advantage in the race to develop artificial intelligence (AI), one of the sector’s largest players has told Sky News.
Data centres – warehouses housing processors that power cloud computing – are central to the digital economy. They provide the power, connections and security required for the vast amount of processing power on which everything from personal device browsing to AI learning relies.
The UK is currently Europe’s largest data hub, with more than 500 data centres, the majority in the South East.
Slough in west London is the industry’s historic base, largely because of its proximity to both transatlantic connectors and the City of London, whose financial services and banks were initially the biggest customers for computation power.
Last month the government classified data centres as ‘critical national infrastructure’, putting them on a par with power stations and railways but the industry says a broader strategy is required as it moves to meet the growing demand driven by power-hungry AI chips.
High land prices, competition for grid connections and the resistance of local residents have put a premium on further expansion in the southeast, leading some companies to look beyond the industry’s traditional base.
Kao Data, which has an expanding campus in Harlow, Essex, is among those looking to beyond the South East, and broke ground this week on a £350m development at Stockport in Greater Manchester.
Spencer Lamb, Kao’s chief commercial officer, said the UK industry is at a turning point.
Spencer Lamb is shown talking to Sky News
“We are under pressure to be able to provide capacity and create data centre buildings to fuel the demand from AI, that’s the challenge. Whether we as a country provide the environment for it is the big question mark,” he said.
“If we want to be part of the global AI opportunity we need to deploy these resources in locations that are suitable, sustainable and have the opportunity for growth. We didn’t really have a plan 10 years ago when cloud computing started, and by accident we’ve ended up where we are today which is in effect consuming all the power into the west of London.
“Now is the time to come up with a UK-wide data centre strategy and start deploying these facilities in other parts of the country, distributing them fairly.”
Kao’s expansion in Manchester exploits an existing industrial site – it will replace a concrete factory – and the availability of a grid connection, fundamental in a notoriously power-hungry industry in which a facility’s size is measured in megawatts not square feet. A 100MW data centre consumes the same amount of electricity as 100,000 homes, a town roughly the size of Ipswich.
👉 Click here to follow The Ian King Business Podcast wherever you get your podcasts 👈
Mr Lamb said it is a model the government should heed. “A realistic opportunity would be to allocate two or three locations across the UK which have access to power as data centre planning zones, where the local authorities understand what a data centre is, are welcoming and we can develop these buildings simply and swiftly and remove a lot of the bureaucracy that exists.”
Read more from Sky News:
The net zero tech getting £22bn govt investment
Car industry sounds warning as electric car sales stall
The Stockport site also has the backing of the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who sees data as part of the jigsaw of infrastructure required to boost economic development in the North West.
“This is now critical national infrastructure as designated by the new government, and it makes sense that all of that capacity is not just clustered in one part of the country. We now need to see the emergence of a large-scale data centre industry in the north of England,” Mr Lamb said.
The challenge of further expansion in the South East is evident on the outskirts of the expanding village of Abbotts Langley in Hertfordshire, where a patch of green belt has become a frontline in the debate over data centres and the new government’s commitment to growth.
The proposed site for the data centre in Abbotts Langley
The 31-hectare plot, once grazed by cows that produced milk for the nearby Ovaltine factory, has been bought by property developer Greystoke Land and earmarked for a data centre.
The local planning authority, Three Rivers Council, rejected it because of the loss of green belt, but on her first day in office, Angela Rayner, the housing minister, “called in” the application, beginning a process expected to end with her over-ruling the local authority.
Labour promised to back development in government but that does not make it popular. As well as concerns over the environmental impact of a data centre, residents believe the development will remove the only buffer between the village and the motorway.
Stephen Giles-Medhurst, Liberal Democrat leader of Three Rivers Council, 76% of which is made up of green belt, told Sky News communities need something in return.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
“I’m not a total nimby, I can see which way the wind is blowing, but we will make the best case possible to say no to this development because it is an inappropriate site, which causes very high harm to the green belt.
“Ironically we do have some brownfield sites that landowners won’t release, and we can’t compulsory purchase, let’s do something about that and bring them back into public ownership.
“But if at the end of the day we’re overruled then we will be demanding the infrastructure that’s for Abbots Langley and Three Rivers.”
A Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “Our reforms to the planning system will make it easier to build the key infrastructure this country needs – such as data centres – securing our economic future and giving businesses the confidence to invest.
“Development on the green belt will only be allowed where there is a real need and will not come at the expense of the environment.”
Donald Trump has revealed that media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan could be part of a deal in which TikTok in the United States will come under American control.
The US president also namedropped Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, as a possible participant in the deal during an interview with Fox News, which is owned by the Murdochs.
“I think they’re going to be in the group. A couple of others. Really great people, very prominent people,” Mr Trump said. “And they’re also American patriots, you know, they love this country. I think they’re going to do a really good job.”
Mr Trump said that Larry Ellison, founder and CEO of software firm Oracle, was part of the same group. His involvement in the potential TikTok deal had previously been revealed.
President Donald Trump speaking to reporters outside the White House. Pic: AP/Mark Schiefelbein
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Saturday that Oracle would be responsible for the app’s data and security, with Americans set to control six of the seven seats for a planned TikTok board.
This comes after Mr Trump said he and China’s Xi Jinping held a “very productive call” on Friday, discussing the final approval for the TikTok deal, much of which is still unknown.
Once confirmed, the deal should stop TikTok from being banned in the US after lawmakers decided it posed a security risk to citizens’ data.
Officials warned that the algorithm TikTok uses is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to push specific content on the social media platform in a way that is difficult to detect.
Congress had ordered the app shut down for American users by January 2025 if its Chinese owner ByteDance didn’t sell its assets in the country – but the ban has been delayed four times by President Trump.
Read more from Sky News:
Trump delivers speech at Charlie Kirk’s memorial
Pentagon orders journalists to agree to reporting rules
Mr Trump said on Sunday that he might be “a little prejudiced” about TikTok, after telling reporters on Friday: “I wasn’t a fan of TikTok and then I got to use it and then I became a fan and it helped me win an election in a landslide.”
After the call with Mr Xi, Mr Trump said in a Truth Social post: “We made progress on many very important issues, including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal.”
Mr Trump later told reporters at the White House that Xi had approved the deal, but said it still needed to be signed.
Representatives for the Murdochs, Mr Dell and Mr Ellison have not yet commented on a potential TikTok deal.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment12 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024