A hyperscale data centre has been proposed for land near Abbots Langley that could bring £1bn of investment.

Two buildings that together cover the same area as 12 football pitches could be coming to land behind the Mansion House Farm site off Bedmond Road, near the M25.

As a data centre the development would house IT services and their components and as a “hyperscale data centre” it would take advantage of efficiencies of scale due to its huge size.

The planning statement, submitted on behalf of Greystoke Land LTD, says: “The evidence shows rapid growth in the amount of data that is being generated. That data needs to be stored and processed.

“The amount of data being generated is growing exponentially. It is driven by the radical transformation in the way people interact and how technology is used for personal, administrative, governmental, and business activities.”

The site is wholly within the green belt and the applicant acknowledged it would damage the green belt's openness, however it claimed the importance of the development qualified as "very special circumstances".

These massive centres, the plan explains, are necessary for the UK to address the requirements of the rise of AI and machine learning and need to be within a certain area of each other as different sites have "parent-child" relationships in terms of how they interact, meaning the possible locations are very restricted.

Watford Observer: The area (roughly) that the data centre has been proposed forThe area (roughly) that the data centre has been proposed for (Image: Boundary Commission)

According to the plan there are “no effective alternatives to hyperscale data centres to meet the need within the UK” and “this development cannot be serviced or addressed in alternative locations” because of the need to balance it with other centres.

Greystoke also claims that the social and economic benefits of the plan will be “considerable” and “far from the ordinary” with direct inward investment of more than £1bn.

Work at the site would include demolishing and clearing existing buildings and adding earthworks, landscaping, a small training centre, internal roads and footpaths, and a security perimeter fence.

The plan, submitted yesterday (June 28), is just an “outline application” with “all matters of detail reserved for subsequent determination”.

It also includes a 21-hectare country park to the east of the site, outside the perimeter fence, which would form an extension to Leavesdsen Country Park.

It would be developed with new paths, bridges, water features, and planting.