Policy / Opening up
United Kingdom
The UK is actively steering AI data centres towards designated zones with planning and power support.
Government policy treats data centres as strategic infrastructure, with AI Growth Zones offering faster planning, help with grid access and, from 2027, lower electricity costs in some regions. A public compute roadmap sets out growth in state-funded capacity to 2030. New cyber-resilience duties for data centres are proposed. For someone seeking compute, the practical effect is more capacity being steered towards Scotland, Wales and northern England.
Power and grid
The AI Growth Zones paper describes reallocating grid capacity, reserving capacity for strategic projects and letting developers build their own high-voltage infrastructure, with government expecting shorter connection timelines.
The rules and programmes
| Instrument | Kind | Status | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Growth Zones delivery policy | Policy | in force | Published 13 November 2025; sets out grid, planning and power-price support for zones, with the electricity discount scheme due to start in April 2027 subject to legislation. |
| UK Compute Roadmap | Programme | in force | Published July 2025 and updated April 2026; commits to a 20-fold rise in public AI research capacity by 2030 and forecasts at least 6GW of AI-capable data centre capacity. |
| Data centres designated Critical National Infrastructure | Policy | in force | Announced 12 September 2024; brings data centres under dedicated government security and incident-response support. |
| Cyber Security and Resilience Bill: data centre regime | Law | proposed | Would make Ofcom the regulator for data centres at or above 1MW rated IT load (10MW for enterprise facilities), with incident reporting duties. |
Checked against the primary sources linked above on 2 October 2026. Due for review by 1 January 2027. This is a summary, not legal advice. If something is out of date, tell us.