The government has published the first draft of its National Policy Statement (NPS) for datacentres. It plans to open England’s Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) regime to datacentre schemes of 100MW and above and instruct the secretary of state to begin from a presumption of consent.
The 94-page draft, from the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST), sets the framework the Planning Inspectorate and Secretary of State will use to decide applications for development consent for large datacentres.
It adopts the five tests set out in the Data Centre Covenant, published the same day, as its assessment criteria.
Publication of the statement came alongside a call for views on the NPS that closes at 11.59pm on 8 January 2027.
The document sets an indicative minimum of 100MW of rated IT load capacity for a project to be directed into the NSIP regime, a threshold it argues reserves the route for only the largest and most nationally significant sites.
Projects below it would continue to pass through the Town and Country Planning Act.
The statement must complete its parliamentary stages before it is designated and takes effect. Once designated, the Planning Inspectorate would examine applications for the secretary of state to decide them against its published criteria rather than through case-by-case judgement.
The NPS grounds its case in sovereignty, arguing that as AI and data become central to healthcare, defence and public services, Britain cannot depend on infrastructure located overseas. It cites £19.4bn of foreign direct investment in UK datacentres since July 2024, an estimated estate of more than 220 datacentres with about 2GW of capacity, and 73GW across roughly 315 projects sitting in the grid connection queue.
It points to the government’s Compute Roadmap forecast that the UK needs at least 6GW of AI-capable datacentre capacity by 2030 – about three times current capacity – and an increase in datacentre planning applications of more than 60% in 2025. Global demand projections by Goldman Sachs cited in the report suggest the market could grow by up to 165% by 2030.
The statement also argues that not all UK datacentre needs can be met by overseas infrastructure. Sensitive government, health and financial data must be processed under UK regulatory and security frameworks, it says, adding that latency-sensitive sectors such as finance and university research depend on nearby capacity rather than remote compute.
The presumption of consent means a development consent order is unlikely to be refused where a scheme meets the NPS requirements, applies the mitigation hierarchy and satisfies legal requirements. Exceptions include unmitigable harm to habitat sites, unacceptable risk to human health or defence, and sites in the Green Belt.
The document stresses that the presumption does not create a new need case or extra weighting. It applies only after normal consideration of the need case and satisfaction of the NPS and legal requirements, and applications must still satisfy the Habitats Regulations, including consideration of alternatives and compensatory measures.
Applicants must still submit an Environmental Impact Assessment and a Habitats Regulations Assessment, and provide evidence on biodiversity net gain, water and grid connections. The assessment principles also cover climate change mitigation and adaptation, environmental regulation, safety and security. The NPS expects datacentres to capture waste heat “wherever practical”, minimise water use, and publish annual energy and water data. It defines the scope of facilities it covers, distinguishing them from other digital infrastructure such as cloud services.
The government published an Appraisal of Sustainability and a Habitats Regulations Assessment alongside the draft. The NPS applies to England only, and may be a material consideration for decisions in Scotland and Wales. It arrives weeks after MSPs voted to pause planning decisions on large Scottish datacentres until national guidance appears.
The Chancellor introduced the datacentre covenant in the Autumn Budget, alongside the government’s response to its grid connections consultation. It forms one part of a three-part push to make the planning and power system deliver datacentres faster.
