10bn investment in Northumberland datacentre confirmed

Blyth will be home to UK’s biggest AI datacentre

Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed that £10bn of overseas investment has been secured to build what will become one of Europe’s biggest datacentres.

The £10bn investment in the site in Cambois, near Blyth in Northumberland is expected to create approximately 4000 jobs, 1200 of which will be related to its construction.

The investment comes from the private equity giant Blackstone, facilitated by the Office for Investment. Blackstone purchased the site earlier this year after the collapse of Britishvolt which had planned to build an electric car battery factory on the site.

Speaking in New York yesterday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said:

“The number one mission of my government is to grow our economy, so that hard-working British people reap the benefits – and more foreign investment is a crucial part of that plan,” he said.

“New investment such as the one we’ve announced with Blackstone today is a huge vote of confidence in the UK, and it proves that Britain is back as a major player on the global stage and we’re open for business.”

Construction on the site is expected to start next year.

Northumberland County Council leader Glen Sanderson said the investment was a "gamechanger" for the region and welcomed the prime minister throwing "his full support" behind it.

Datacentres have been in the news a great deal since July’s election. The government recently announced that datacentres would be designated critical national infrastructure, and two datacentres in the southeast which the previous government had blocked have been “called in” by Angela Rayner in the capacity of her role as Housing and Communities secretary.

Even with the objections that means it takes years to get them built, the UK has the most datacentres in Western Europe. The industry generates more than £4bn a year although the extent to which that money benefits the people that live closest to them is debatable.

Residents have pointed to datacentre expansion in cities like Dublin, where there is now a moratorium on any new ones because of the vast amount of energy they are using. Whilst it’s difficult to be entirely sure where concerns about the impact on energy supplies and carbon emissions cross over with nimbyism, the impact of these proposed datacentres on the wider UK transition to Net Zero is certainly worthy of discussion, along with local grid connnections.

£110m of the Blyth project’s funding will be earmarked by Blackstone for local transport infrastructure and skills training – a factor likely to be crucial in winning support for the project locally.

Jon Gray, president and chief operating officer of Blackstone, commented:

“We are making significant commitments to building social housing, facilitating the energy transition, growing life sciences companies and developing critical infrastructure needed to fuel the digital economy,” he said.

“This includes a projected £10bn investment to build one of Europe’s largest hyperscale datacentres supporting 4,000 jobs. Blackstone is committed to Britain.”