London’s £10bn data centre boom accelerates amid AI power crunch Tech London’s data centre sector is entering a new phase of expansion, with three major schemes worth over £10bn revealed in the past week. The projects, all located in and around the capital, aim to serve the growing computing needs of the City, tech firms, and the broader UK economy, particularly AI workloads. The developments are [...]
Tony Blair calls on Labour to ditch key net zero target Energy Tony Blair’s think tank has called for the government to ditch its 2030 clean power target as it urged the Labour government to focus on making electricity cheaper in order to persuade Brits to use it over gas. In a report published by the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), researchers called for the government to “solve” [...]
Ministers set to cut industrial energy prices for British manufacturers Energy The government plans to slash industrial energy prices for British manufacturers, enabling them to better compete with key European rivals. Ministers will unveil a multibillion pound package of taxpayer-funded support for the UK’s most energy intensive industries, as part of the government’s industrial strategy on Monday, according to reports. Proposals to make energy prices more [...]
Heathrow warned about power supply days before outage closure, MPs told April 2, 2025 Heathrow Airport was warned about its power supply in the days before it closed because of an outage, MPs were told. Nigel Wicking, chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators Committee, which represents airlines that use the west London airport, said there were a “couple of incidents” which made him concerned. The airport was closed to [...]
Ofgem to fast-track £4bn investment in UK electricity grid March 20, 2025 Ofgem has announced plans to fast-track around £4bn of investment into expanding the UK’s electricity transmission network as it looks to decarbonise the grid by 2030. The Advanced Procurement Mechanism (APM) will enable signed-off projects to “break ground as soon as planning approval is granted,” the energy regulator said in a statement on Thursday. It [...]
Plans for £1bn battery gigafactory and over 1,000 new jobs revealed February 26, 2025 Plans to create a £1bn 10GWh battery gigafactory in Coventry which will create over 1,000 jobs by 2030 have been revealed. Volklec, a battery manufacturing start-up which set up shop in the West Midlands city last year, has entered into an exclusive license agreement with China-based Far East Battery (FEB). The deal will see Volklec [...]
Vitality: ‘Why your health and life insurance premium won’t go down’ February 18, 2025 In this episode of Boardroom Uncovered, Neville Koopowitz, the chief executive of health and life insurance giant Vitality.
UK’s data centre ambitions threatened by grid red tape February 6, 2025 Delays connecting to the electricity grid may risk the UK’s position in the global AI race, as proposals for new data centres are pushed down the track, experts have warned. The National Energy Systems Operator (NESO) is grappling with a major backlog, and it is understood that any proposed big infrastructure project looking to hook [...]
Probe launched into £2.1bn takeover of Electricity North West by ScottishPower owner January 29, 2025 The competition watchdog has launched a probe into a £2.1bn deal to takeover Electricity North West by the owner of ScottishPower. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is looking into the deal which was first announced by Iberdrola in August last year. The watchdog said it was investigating whether the deal may affect competition in [...]
National Grid plans to double energy transmission with huge investment December 18, 2024 National Grid said its business plan would be the "most significant step forward in the UK's transmission network for a generation."