By Jude Clonan, Commercial Director, Apto
You don’t often get a room full of people who’ve each spent years wrestling with the same set of headaches – planning, power and policy – and still come out optimistic. But that’s what last week’s Data Centres Breakfast Seminar managed to pull off.
Hosted by Lockton, the world’s largest independent insurance brokerage, and moderated by David Hayhow (Construction Practice Leader), the session – Risk, Resilience and Growth in the UK’s Data Centre Landscape – brought together a panel of industry voices for a genuinely frank discussion.
I was pleased to join the conversation to explore what it really takes to deliver the next generation of UK data centre capacity, at a time when power constraints, planning complexity and AI-driven change are converging faster than the industry can adapt.
Designing for uncertainty
For all the talk of resilience, what really matters now is flexibility. None of us can say with confidence what AI workloads will look like in five years, or even two. The best we can do is build facilities that can adapt.
Across our own projects, we’re seeing designs move away from one-size-fits-all toward scalable, modular frameworks where cooling, density and capacity can evolve without a rebuild. It’s not so much about predicting the future; it’s about being ready for whichever version of it arrives.
That distinction matters. Modularisation brings real benefits in terms of speed to market – we’re seeing excellent solutions for containerised or skidded switch rooms, modularised chilled water systems and other prefabricated elements. But we shouldn’t conflate modular with containerised. There’s still some nervousness around the lifespan and long-term asset value of fully containerised facilities. The priority should be flexible design, not disposable design.
We’re already seeing the shift from 10–15kW racks to 200kW and beyond. For operators, that means rethinking floor loadings, cooling strategy and electrical distribution. For developers, it means committing to flexibility even if it adds cost. It’s the only way to protect value over time.
Rethinking the power problem
Power, unsurprisingly, dominated the conversation. And while everyone agrees it’s the single biggest drag on the UK’s competitiveness, I think we also need to rethink how we talk about it.
‘Temporary power’ feels like the wrong term. It suggests a stop-gap, when in reality on-site generation, battery storage and other alternative power solutions are now essential tools for getting projects moving. In constrained markets where grid connections can take four to six years, these are not short-term fixes; they’re part of a long-term energy strategy.
Traditional utility power will continue to play a central role where connections are available, but integrating alternative solutions – such as on-site gas, solar, battery and emerging SMR technologies – offers a clear advantage in speed and flexibility. The winners will be those who move early, adopting hybrid power strategies to unlock sites faster when and where needed.
Planning that builds confidence
The UK’s decision to classify data centres as critical national infrastructure was an important step, but unless we see meaningful reform in how local authorities handle applications, we’ll keep hitting the same walls.
Timelines are one thing, uncertainty is another. Developers can plan for a long process, but when the timelines themselves are unclear or unpredictable, it becomes difficult to model risk. The result is business cases that don’t stack up, even when the fundamentals are sound.
A predictable planning framework wouldn’t just accelerate delivery, it would unlock capital that’s currently sitting on the sidelines because the risk profile is too high. The UK doesn’t lack ambition or investor appetite; but it could benefit from more clarity around the process.
Don’t overlook the people
One risk that doesn’t get enough airtime, in my view, is the people side of the equation. We talk about megawatts and megaprojects, but without a strong pipeline of skilled engineers, electricians and operators, the whole system slows down.
Even with the best designs and power plans, projects will stall if we don’t have the skilled hands to build, deliver and operate them. The pressure is already visible, and as the market shifts from new builds to retrofits and densification projects, that demand will only grow. This isn’t a ‘future risk’, it’s already visible on the ground.
Bringing younger people into the industry and showing them why it matters should be as high on the agenda as any policy reform. If we ignore that, we’ll be sitting here in five years talking about a labour crisis instead of a power one.
Bringing it all together
What struck me across the discussion was how fragmented things still feel. Every part of the value chain – from investors to utilities to government – recognises the need for joined-up thinking, yet the machinery for that coordination isn’t there.
Some of our European peers are showing what good looks like: coordinated national strategies linking energy policy, planning and private investment. The UK has all the ingredients to do the same, but it still feels like every project is a one-off. The ambition is there, but the structure is trailing behind.
For all the complexity we face, the takeaway for me is simple: the future of the UK’s data centre ecosystem depends less on new ideas and more on execution. Getting power, planning, people and policy to pull in the same direction is the real challenge ahead.
