Power Planning and Policy Are Where Britain's AI Future Will Be Won
The UK’s AI credentials are well established. It is home to one of the world’s three largest data centre markets and has demonstrated clear ambition through initiatives such as the AI Opportunities Action Plan and AI Growth Zones, signalling a long-term commitment backed by substantial global investment.
Yet the policy landscape has evolved rapidly. Recent announcements and the AI Adoption Summit signalled a shift in thinking. Government now recognises that building AI infrastructure alone is not enough. To justify continued investment in data centres and compute capacity, the UK must accelerate AI adoption across the wider economy.
This matters because the next phase of AI competitiveness will not be determined solely by models, talent or funding. It will be determined by the foundations that support them: the power infrastructure, planning frameworks and policy environment that enable AI to scale.
Power, planning and policy: these are the three areas where Britain's AI ambitions will ultimately be won or lost.
Power: From operational cost to strategic enabler
Energy has evolved from an operational consideration into a strategic lever shaping national competitiveness.
The scale of demand tells part of the story. UK data centre electricity demand could increase fivefold as AI scales, with proposed projects potentially requiring around 50GW - exceeding current peak national demand. The cost barrier compounds it: according to techUK’s Digital Infrastructure 2035 report, UK industrial electricity prices sit 63% above the IEA median, and powering a 100MW facility here cost an estimated £226.5m in 2023, against £56.8m in the US. The consequence is already playing out: nearly half of AI-first organisations say infrastructure isn’t keeping pace with GPU investment, and a third say energy costs are actively limiting expansion.
Add grid connection delays of up to eight years, according to techUK, and the picture becomes clear - this is a system working against the ambition it’s supposed to support.
Yet there’s an opportunity inside this challenge that doesn’t get discussed enough. Data centres don’t have to be passive energy consumers. The best-designed ones operate as active energy assets, supporting grid stability, demand flexibility and renewable integration. Our intelligent energy management systems are already enabling operators to work this way - turning what was a cost burden into infrastructure that gives back to the grid.
The policy lever that would move this fastest is techUK’s recommendation to shift energy levies from electricity bills to general taxation by 2029, alongside accelerated grid connection reform. Both are achievable. Both matter enormously.
Planning: Building for where the UK needs to go
If power determines whether infrastructure can be connected, planning determines where it gets built.
The UK has no joined-up national planning policy on data centres. Every local authority interprets the framework differently, and the result is inconsistency where the market needs clarity. Meanwhile, the legacy hubs in London and the South East are running into hard constraints on land and grid capacity - which creates an opportunity to build differently, in places that have been waiting for this kind of investment.
AI Growth Zones are the right idea. Still, designation isn’t readiness. The sites that attract long-term development will be the ones with available power, supportive planning frameworks and strong local partnerships. The proposed Killellan AI campus in Dunoon is a strong example - a former oil and gas site being repurposed into a large-scale data centre campus. That is the kind of brownfield regeneration the UK needs more of, and where we see the greatest long-term opportunity.
Our approach - through Motivair liquid cooling, modular deployment and AI-ready infrastructure built to NVIDIA’s AI factory blueprints - is about making it possible to build faster and at the scale modern AI workloads demand. Data centres that are designed to be good neighbours, not just good facilities.
Policy: The thread that ties everything together
Power and planning challenges may appear separate, but both depend on a coordinated national approach to digital infrastructure.
The most significant policy development of the past year is the growing recognition that infrastructure investment and AI adoption must move together. The AI Adoption Summit signalled a more integrated approach, combining economic strategy, infrastructure investment and sector deployment plans.
The creation of the AI Economics Institute will help build evidence around productivity, labour market impacts and economic growth. Alongside this, the UK AI Hardware Plan focuses on compute capacity, infrastructure and supply chains, while sector-focused AI Adoption Plans aim to accelerate deployment across industries including advanced manufacturing, clean energy, digital technology and life sciences.
Together, these initiatives represent an important shift. The conversation is no longer simply about building more data centres. It is about creating the conditions for AI to deliver measurable economic value across the economy. Data centres are not the end goal; they are the foundation that enables broader transformation.
The countries that succeed in AI will be those that align infrastructure, energy, planning and adoption as part of a single industrial strategy. Likewise, the regions that combine power availability, planning readiness and policy support will be best positioned to attract investment.
Britain has many of the ingredients required to lead. The challenge now is connecting those strengths into a coherent strategy that turns AI ambition into economic growth.
The AI debate has been dominated by models. That conversation matters. But Britain's long-term position in this race will be decided by the infrastructure, energy systems and policy frameworks built around them.
The opportunity is here. The challenge is execution.
Meet the Team
Chris Hazell
Josh Turpin
Josh Turpin
Josh joined techUK as a Programme Manager for Telecoms and Net Zero in August 2024.
In this role, working jointly across the techUK Telecoms and Climate Programmes, Josh is responsible for leading on telecoms infrastructure deployment and uptake and supporting innovation opportunities, as well as looking at how the tech sector can be further utilised in the UK’s decarbonisation efforts.
Prior to joining techUK, Josh’s background was in public affairs and communications, working for organisations across a diverse portfolio of sectors including defence, telecoms and infrastructure; aiding clients through stakeholder engagement, crisis communications, media outreach as well as secretariat duties.
Outside of work, Josh has a keen interest in music, painting and sailing.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 020 7331 2038
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-turpin/