Developers set out need for huge Abbots Langley data centre

As part of a planning application, internet advisors at FoundDigital have warned the London region needs investment into its cloud infrastructure to stay competitive.

Advisors claim that without more data space, the capital risks its position in finance markets – under “extreme challenge” from Frankfurt – and could forfeit national ambitions to become a “global leader” in research.

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Hemel Hempstead’s sphere of influence, which developers have said include Abbots Langley, needs 500 megawatts of IT capacity, their report adds.

The application has been put forward by an Oxford-based investment firm, Greystoke Land.

Two buildings would house the data centre, each with a maximum footprint of 21,209.8 square metres.

A 20.8-hectare county park would additionally be set aside for community use, to create habitats and to protect existing green spaces.

Three Rivers District Council is due to make a decision on the planning application, based on local and national planning rules, before the end of September 2023.

According to FoundDigital, internet traffic increased 440 per cent between 2015 and 2021.

Internet traffic was around 3.4 zettabytes in 2021, the equivalent space to around 26.6 billion 128GB Apple iPhones.

CGI of the proposed development (Image: Pegasus Group/Greystoke Land/Three Rivers District Council)

“The London market represents the largest colocation market by built IT power in Europe, and the second largest in the world after Ashburn, Virginia,” the report notes.

“The reality of the current and growing need for modern data processing and storage is that it requires large buildings arranged in a way that ensures they are highly connected, highly available and resilient.

“Those buildings have very particular locational requirements in relation to existing infrastructure and clustering of existing data centres is no coincidence.”

To reach their conclusions, the consultants considered the “resilience” of the location and how the data centre could plug into other centres nearby.

An alternative sites assessment found there are no previously developed sites across Three Rivers, Dacorum, St Albans, or Dacorum which meet the size needs.

They considered looking into using land between Maylands Industrial Estate and the M1 at Hemel, but said one barrier to using that site is its proximity to the Buncefield Oil Terminal.

“It is notable that the 2005 Buncefield Fire resulted in the IT services to Addenbrooke’s Hospital (Cambridge) being offline for a week,” the assessment found.

The developers’ planning statement acknowledges that data centre buildings would normally be “inappropriate development” in the green belt.

They would also harm the green belt’s openness.

But the developers argue there are “very special circumstances” to allow for the project.

“Data security and data dependence have driven the need for data centres to guarantee near 100 per cent access to our data – bank records, connectivity, communications, shopping, travel, gaming, trading, etcetera,” the statement reads.

How the proposed Abbots Langley data centre could look (Image: Pegasus Group/Greystoke Land/Three Rivers District Council)

“Data centres are equipped with independent power, cooling and networking infrastructure.”

If the centre is located in an Availability Zone, such as one in and around Hemel, it means one affected data centre can be supported by others nearby.

“The proposed development would support and strengthen the existing cluster and digital ecosystem related to data centres and associated digital digital technologies that have developed in and around London – an area in which the UK is now one of the global leaders,” the statement adds.

“The proposed development would represent a ‘very substantial capital investment’.

“This being at a time when the county needs to find sources of new economic growth to aid recovery.

“The scheme would have a construction cost alone that could be of the order of £700 to £800million.

“This figure is not the total value of the investment as it excludes the very substantial cost of the computing, networking and communications equipment likely to bring the total cost to well over £1billion.”

The statement adds: “Large storage buildings do not have to appear industrial or utilitarian in appearance.”

The data centre and country park would sit directly south of the M25 between the A41 and M1 junctions, north-east of Abbots Langley.