Matt Evans, chief operating officer and director of market programmes at techUK, told City AM that removing speculative projects was essential but warned the fees must not discourage genuine investment. Calls for a ‘strategic approach’Some 315 data centres projects account for at least 73GW in the current connections pipeline. Yet grid constraints and rising construction costs have already slowed several schemes, while operators increasingly face long waits for electricity connections. The Essex facility, which Microsoft has signed up to as an anchor customer, forms part of the government’s push to establish Britain as a global AI infrastructure hub. Government emissions forecasts for AI data centres were recently revised upwards by around 100-fold, while data centres now consume around six per cent of UK electricity.