The number of data centre schemes being lodged with councils has more than tripled since the 2000s, rising from an average of 14 a year to 44 a year, partly due to the rise in AI, and research suggests this has increased the demand for electricians.
Research by Horizon Platforms highlights that many of the new developments are being proposed in parts of the country that have a disproportionately small share of the skilled trades required to actually build them.
The research looked at 678 data centre planning applications lodged since 2000 and compared the recent pipeline with ONS employment figures for the 16 main construction trades involved in building and fitting out a data centre.
These include electricians, heating and cooling engineers, machinery installers and other specialist construction workers.
Wales accounts for 13% of the 119 data centre schemes lodged across Britain since the beginning of 2024, despite having just 4% of Britain’s electrical installers. London shows a similar, although smaller, mismatch, accounting for 17% of the recent data centre pipeline but 9% of electrical installers.
Data centre hotspots
Many of the current applications are concentrated in a single corridor just west of London across Chiltern South Bucks, Slough, Buckinghamshire and Wycombe. There are currently 63 data centre schemes awaiting a planning decision countrywide, with 13 in this area alone.
That’s around one in five of all the data centre schemes currently waiting for a decision concentrated in one specific area of the country.
All this means contractors may increasingly need to move their workforce around the country to meet the demand as multiple large projects compete for the same pool of tradespeople.
If more than one of these centres breaks ground at the same time, they could find themselves competing for the same pool of electrical and mechanical contractors.
Marco Maccio, Digital Director at Horizon Platforms, said: “Much of the talk around the UK’s data centre boom so far has been around planning permission and the water needed to run them, but each and every one of these businesses needs people to physically build and maintain them.
“There isn’t a separate army of data centre electricians and engineers waiting around for these projects to begin. They’re the same group of people currently busy fitting out hospitals, schools, offices, factories and shops.
“The projects will no doubt still be built, but it will most likely mean contractors moving their crews across the country, which, while not uncommon in the construction trades, is perhaps less expected when you have several major developments all competing for the same people at the same time.
“As it stands, 13 schemes are waiting for decisions in one corridor just west of London. If several decide to start construction together, they’ll all be fighting over the same contractors, and we could see bidding wars for the most in-demand trades, placing extra pressure on completing projects. Something that can come with safety risks. From an access equipment hire perspective, suppliers will need to be watertight with machine quality and meeting their clients’ schedules.”
Full study is available here: horizonplatforms.co.uk/blog/who-will-build-britains-AI-boom
