A £3.75bn Hyperscale Datacentre to be Built in Hertfordshire
Despite facing over 900 objections, a plan to construct a £3.75bn hyperscale datacentre on green belt land near the South Mimms Service Station in Hertfordshire has been approved by the local authorities.
DC01UK, the development company behind the project, applied for outline planning permission from Hertsmere Borough Council in September 2024. The council has now given the green light to DC01UK’s plans, considering them to be an acceptable use of the land in principle.
The planning portal shows that 929 objections were raised against the project, while 503 submissions were made in support of DC01UK’s proposal.
A spokesperson for DC01UK expressed gratitude to Hertsmere Borough Council for their support, emphasizing the benefits the datacentre will bring to the local community in terms of economic growth, job creation, and opportunities.
The project aims to position Hertfordshire at the forefront of the datacentre industry, generating £3.75bn for the economy during construction and creating nearly 14,000 indirect jobs once operational.
DC01UK, although not an operator of datacentres, intends to market the site for development into a datacentre following the approval of outline planning permission.
The site is expected to house Europe’s largest cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) datacentre, attracting interest from potential partners looking to tailor the facility to their specific needs.
The UK government’s recent publication of the 50-point AI opportunities action plan emphasizes the importance of AI technologies and aims to increase AI-ready compute capacity across the country by easing planning restrictions on new datacentre constructions.
Minister for telecoms Chris Bryant MP highlighted the significance of datacentres in driving economic growth and job creation, positioning them as essential components of the modern age.
Stephen Beard, head of datacentres at Knight Frank, described the Hertfordshire project as a groundbreaking development that will establish the UK as a leader in cloud, AI, and digital infrastructure.
