UK Growth Minister Says Data Centre Build-Out Will Continue Despite US Backlash

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Saturday, Tomlinson said wider use of AI across the British economy means the country will need more data centres. But he said "we won't allow that growth to come at any cost", and that the government had learned from the "free-for-all in parts of the U.S." and wanted to avoid a "polarizing debate".

The stance matters because it sets Britain apart from the political mood in the US, where the backlash against data centres became an election issue this month. Tomlinson argued that the UK faces the opposite problem. "Our problem is not that we have an abundance of data center construction that our politics needs to reckon with," he said, but that "the build-out is slower here than it could be." He added: "The pace of investment here is, frankly, too low for what we need to stay at the forefront as AI technology develops."

According to accounts of the interview by Engadget and the International Business Times, Tomlinson said projects seeking government support will have to invest in local communities and create jobs, and the IBTimes account adds community consent as a condition. He warned that developers who "move too quickly without bringing communities with you" would leave residents worried about local effects and asking "what they're getting in return."

The government's Compute Roadmap, a policy paper on how to meet AI's power needs, calls for at least 6GW of data centre capacity by 2030, Engadget noted. Britain has already eased approvals through its AI Growth Zones programme, launched in 2025, though residents have protested at some planned sites.

The gap in spending is wide. The IBTimes report cited figures from the Center for Economic Policy Research putting AI investment in the US at $280 billion in 2026, against $25 billion in the UK.

Opposition to data centres has meanwhile hardened elsewhere. At least 38 ballot measures restricting or blocking data centres passed in the US elections, and every moratorium on the ballot was approved except one, in a North Dakota town of fewer than 1,000 people, according to the IBTimes report. It cited NBC News exit polls showing 56% of voters said AI and data centres played a crucial or major role in how they voted, and 76% said they would oppose a new data centre in their own community. Democratic candidates for governor who backed moratoriums or tighter rules won in Texas, Ohio and Georgia.

In Europe, coordinated protests against data centres took place in 16 countries on Friday and Saturday, and Dutch activists broke into a Microsoft data centre construction site in Amsterdam. Opponents cite heavy electricity and water use, construction without public consent and the speed at which AI is spreading through the economy.

Tomlinson did not set out in the reported remarks how community consent would be measured or how the job and investment conditions would be enforced. Those details will decide whether Britain can speed up construction without running into the same resistance now slowing projects in the US.