SNP council backs datacentre halt and creates Burnham dilemma
The Scottish Nationwide Get together’s (SNP) nationwide council has handed a movement to freeze all new datacentre improvement in Scotland, which might create a constitutional and coverage problem to Westminster’s synthetic intelligence (AI) infrastructure ambitions and a political paradox for probably incoming prime minister Andy Burnham.
The movement, handed lately by the SNP council and now headed to the Scottish Parliament, requires a brief cessation of datacentre tasks that haven’t but acquired planning permission.
SNP councillor Lesley Backhouse, who attended the nationwide council assembly, described the present pipeline of proposals as “excessive overdevelopment” and mentioned she helps “the area people and their endeavours to forestall this from occurring”, in keeping with the Guardian.
The decision lands at a second when the UK authorities has doubled down on datacentres as crucial nationwide infrastructure (CNI). The Division for Science, Innovation and Expertise has designated datacentres as important companies underneath the Community and Info Techniques Laws 2018. Datacentres with a rated IT load of 1MW or extra will fall in scope, bringing necessary safety and resilience duties.
For Burnham, the contradiction together with his political model is thrown into aid. He has talked about “taking energy out of the centre” and devolving authority to areas and native areas – a philosophy he has championed throughout his tenure as mayor of Higher Manchester.
However the Westminster machine he stands to inherit treats datacentres as nationally important infrastructure that should be constructed, and quick, to maintain the UK in what ministers body as the worldwide AI race.
That, mentioned Invoice McCluggage, who was director of IT technique and coverage within the Cupboard Workplace and deputy authorities CIO from 2009 to 2012, needs to be what guides Burnham.
“A brand new Burnham authorities ought to reconcile localism with nationwide priorities by recognising that datacentres are actually crucial nationwide infrastructure,” mentioned McCluggage.
“Considerations raised by APRS [Action to Protect Rural Scotland] about electrical energy demand, water use and environmental impression need to be taken significantly as they exhibit why Scotland wants strategic planning quite than both a blanket moratorium or a free-for-all.”
McCluggage added that if present proposals place unacceptable strain on the grid, the reply could be to part improvement alongside funding in new producing capability, transmission networks and water infrastructure quite than a blanket ban on new planning functions.
In the meantime, Conservative peer Chris Holmes mentioned: “Datacentres are important not solely to the UK AI story, but additionally to the financial development crucial. The federal government should resolve to behave to resolve the power price disaster, decide essentially the most advantageous places, drive ahead the AI development zones and entice the expertise to work in and round these new foundries for our future.”
He added: “These datacentres have to be right-sized for the operate and the workload they’ll take care of domestically. If the federal government will get it proper, this may drive development at an area, regional and additive nation stage.”
Structural conflict
However the planning frameworks on both aspect of the border make the conflict, to some extent, structural. Scotland operates a totally devolved planning system, ruled by its personal laws. Beneath its Nationwide Planning Framework 4, datacentres categorized as “inexperienced knowledge centres” are designated as nationwide developments that give them a privileged place within the planning hierarchy. However the time period “inexperienced knowledge centre” stays undefined.
In the meantime, the pipeline of proposed tasks tells its personal story. Most of the developments cited as proof of a datacentre land seize in Scotland exist solely as pre-application notices or environmental impression evaluation screening requests. They don’t but have planning consent and will by no means safe grid connections on the scale builders declare. It’s properly established within the trade that datacentre builders routinely financial institution land and publicise plans that stay, in apply, speculative.
The movement earlier than the Scottish Parliament attracts closely on evaluation printed by Motion to Defend Rural Scotland, the countryside charity that has led the marketing campaign in opposition to unchecked datacentre growth. In December 2025, APRS and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland wrote to planning minister Ivan McKee calling for a pause on all datacentre functions till a strategic method and strict environmental requirements are established.
APRS has listed 17 hyperscale datacentres at numerous phases of the planning course of, with a mixed power demand it reckons at between 4,450MW and 4,950MW – a determine bigger than Scotland’s total winter peak electrical energy demand of simply over 4GW. Three-quarters of that demand comes from planning functions lodged by a single developer, Apatura.
The SNP movement references 24 hyperscale tasks – a better depend than the 17 within the APRS evaluation, suggesting the social gathering has included further proposals. Laptop Weekly has requested a duplicate of the SNP council movement and the total record of 24 datacentres, however had not acquired a response by the point of publication.
Not all of these tasks will materialise on the scale claimed, however the movement represents the primary occasion of a devolved administration making ready to make use of planning autonomy to push again instantly in opposition to Westminster’s centralised AI infrastructure drive.
Good development checks
One attainable path via the deadlock lies in what is likely to be termed a “good development” check. Datacentre builders searching for planning fast-tracks may very well be required to exhibit tangible social worth, reminiscent of connection to native warmth networks, upgrades to grid infrastructure that profit surrounding communities, or binding commitments to water stewardship.
McCluggage prompt an method alongside these strains. “Scotland has a novel alternative to guide the UK and Europe by exhibiting how digital infrastructure may be delivered responsibly,” he mentioned.
“Prioritising appropriate post-industrial and brownfield websites, the place energy and water infrastructure already exists or may be upgraded extra effectively, would assist regenerate former industrial communities whereas defending extra delicate places,” he added.
“Environmental considerations ought to form higher tasks and higher planning, however they need to not forestall Scotland from constructing the digital infrastructure that may underpin its future financial system. The problem is just not whether or not to construct datacentres, however tips on how to construct them in the correct locations, on the proper tempo, and with the supporting infrastructure already deliberate.”
