The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has set out an ambition for London to become a global leader in green, high-efficiency data centre innovation, alongside coordinated action to manage rapid growth in the sector.
A new City Hall report highlights that London remains the UK’s leading data centre hub, with 99 sites delivering about 760MW at peak demand, equivalent to the electricity use of 750,000 homes. Demand is rising fast, with around ten times the current data centre capacity already requested in the grid connection queue.
The report argues that data centres are now critical infrastructure for London’s economy, digital innovation and AI, but that their expansion creates major pressures on electricity networks, housing delivery, decarbonisation and wider infrastructure. Published during London Tech Week, it presents both a major opportunity and a challenge: London must grow this sector in a coordinated, sustainable and aligned way with the capital’s long-term needs.
To respond, the Mayor plans a whole-city partnership approach that brings together boroughs, energy providers, developers, universities, and innovative firms. A data centre development roundtable will be hosted at City Hall in the coming weeks. He is also calling for urgent government action to tackle the backlog of grid connections, saying London sits at the centre of the UK’s connections challenge.
The Mayor wants London to become a real-world testbed for greener data centre solutions, including energy efficiency, energy generation, heat reuse and smarter infrastructure. He pointed to the OPEN heat network at Old Oak and Park Royal, which will reuse waste heat from data centres to provide low-carbon heat to homes and businesses.
These ambitions will be reflected in the next London Plan, which will include a new data centre policy. The recently launched London Infrastructure Framework also identifies increased electricity capacity and resilience as a top priority.
Councillor Monica Hamidi of Ealing Council welcomed growth in the right locations, saying: “We support data centres in the right locations, where they deliver real value for residents, meet high standards on sustainability and can support economic growth, such as the West Tech Corridor in North Acton. That includes commitments to renewable energy, low-impact cooling technologies and making better use of waste heat – for example, through district heating networks.”
National Grid also backed the Mayor’s ambitions, confirming major investment in London’s network and stressing that collaboration will be essential.
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