John Healey told lawmakers he rolled out a data center covenant alongside the budget for a clear reason: "because I do not want to see the US data center debate rerun in the UK." He said the government will not permit the kind of "free-for-all" seen in US development fights.
That debate in the US has centered on the power and water needs of data centers, and public anger over those demands played into last week's midterm elections. Democrats won by a landslide, and numerous contenders ran on that theme.
The UK is starting from behind. It lags the US in building data centers and plans to speed up, aiming to reach 6 gigawatts of capacity by 2030 - roughly a threefold expansion. The covenant is designed to win local backing by ensuring communities share in the gains and by lowering electricity costs as AI infrastructure expands.
It also stakes out a resilience stance. The document warns that "the UK cannot rely on infrastructure located overseas," pointing to US cloud services, and says "domestic data-center capacity will give us greater resilience."
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Healey framed the 6GW goal as a question of control over critical data. "I don't want to see health data used in AI other than kept in this country, and just the same with the security data," he said. "We have to have this to protect our independence."
He underscored a local-benefit test for new builds, saying he is "ready to say no" to projects that do not deliver for communities. The bottom line: the UK wants more AI compute, but with strings attached that will influence which operators, utilities and regions get the next wave of investment.
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