Britain’s data centre boom is set to increase demand for plumbers, air conditioning engineers and other skilled construction workers, new analysis suggests.
The number of data centre schemes being lodged with councils has more than tripled since the 2000s, rising from an average of 14 a year to 44 today, partly due to the global AI boom.
Research by Horizon Platforms suggests many new developments are being proposed in parts of the country with a relatively small share of the skilled trades required to build them.
The research looked at 678 data centre planning applications lodged since 2000 and compared the recent pipeline with ONS employment figures for the 16 main construction trades involved in building and fitting out a data centre.
Together, the 16 trades employ just over one million people across the UK, while also working on hospitals, schools, offices, factories and shops.
Where are they needed?
The SIC codes for plumbing, heat and air-conditioning installation tradespeople (43220) reveal where these trades live in the UK, thanks to the ONS Business Register data.
Wales, London and the South East are the three UK regions that have experienced the most planning permission applications for data centres since 2024.
They are also the top three regions where plumbing and HVAC tradespeople are sorely lacking.
| Region | Tradespeople | Data Centre Applications (post 2024) | Implied Tradespeople Gap |
| Wales | 7,000 | 16 | 18,143 |
| London | 16,000 | 20 | 15,429 |
| South East | 36,000 | 25 | 3,286 |
| East of England | 19,000 | 14 | 3,000 |
| North East | 5,000 | 4 | 1,286 |
| East Midlands | 13,000 | 7 | -2,000 |
| South West | 14,000 | 5 | -6,143 |
| Scotland | 18,000 | 7 | -7,000 |
| West Midlands | 12,000 | 3 | -7,286 |
| North West | 28,000 | 12 | -9,143 |
| Yorkshire & Humber | 19,000 | 6 | -9,571 |
The full table can be accessed here.
London has received 20 data centre applications since 2024, the South East received 25, and Wales has received 16. Together they share a total of 51% of the pipeline.
Many of the current applications are concentrated in a single corridor just west of London across Chiltern South Bucks, Slough, Buckinghamshire and Wycombe. There are currently 63 data centre schemes awaiting a planning decision countrywide, with 13 in this area alone.
All this means contractors may increasingly need to move their workforce around the country to meet the demand as multiple large projects compete for the same pool of tradespeople.
If more than one of these centres breaks ground at the same time, they could find themselves competing for the same pool of contractors.
Marco Maccio, digital director at Horizon Platforms, comments:
“Much of the talk around the UK’s data centre boom so far has been around planning permission and the water needed to run them, but each and every one of these businesses needs people to physically build and maintain them.
“There isn’t a separate army of data centre tradespeople waiting around for these projects to begin. They’re the same group of people currently busy fitting out hospitals, schools, offices, factories and shops.
“The projects will no doubt still be built, but it will most likely mean contractors moving their crews across the country, which, while not uncommon in the construction trades, is perhaps less expected when you have several major developments all competing for the same people at the same time. As it stands, 13 schemes are waiting for decisions in one corridor just west of London.”
Full study is available here: https://www.horizonplatforms.co.uk/blog/who-will-build-britains-AI-boom
