Planning applications for data center developments in England, UK, doubled between 2024 and 2025, according to council planning data.

According to data center cabling company 2580 Group, which submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to councils in England, planning applications rose from 13 applications in 2024 to 26 in 2025.

2023 saw just nine applications for data center developments.

2580 Group said these figures point to growing demand for digital infrastructure, on the back of AI and cloud computing, putting pressure on UK data center capacity.

Michael Scott, director of 2580 Group, said: “Data centers are a critical part of our national infrastructure. These sites provide the power and capacity needed to run the digital tools that businesses and consumers now rely on every day, from the internet and apps like Instagram and Facebook to CRMs and large language models like ChatGPT and Claude.”

“As demand grows, developers, investors, and councils will need to think carefully about where new data centers are built and how they are delivered.”

However, the UK’s planning system, as well as general local opposition to data centers, has resulted in a high average time - around 490 days - to secure planning consent for a data center, according to British engineering consultancy firm Hoare Lea.

Some 50 councils responded to the 2580’s FOI requests, recording a total of 84 data center planning applications – just under two-thirds (54) of which were approved.

This is a relatively low approval rating for a data center proposal, with more than a third of applications denied between 2023 and 2025, according to the FOI requests.

Previous research into data center approvals in the UK found that the country’s 20 biggest cities approved 89 percent of proposals, with this data covering 2019-2024.

Late last year, the UK government announced it would streamline data center planning regulations in an effort to encourage developers to build in the UK. This includes allowing data center projects to bypass local planning requirements to speed up development.