Northumberland approves ten data centers with habitat bank

Northumberland County Council approved initial plans in May 2025 for a 102-hectare campus of ten QTS data centers at Cambois, enabling a £10 billion QTS investment to proceed with enabling works starting in October 2025.

• Main announcement and implementation: The Council gave initial approval for a campus of ten data centers (102 hectares) at Cambois in May 2025; the development is a £10 billion investment by QTS and enabling works start October 2025. The project faced a shortfall of 289 biodiversity units (including 152 OMH units), which was addressed through a county-scale biodiversity net gain solution.
• Background, partners and habitat-bank details: Northumberland worked with Arcadis (ecological consultants), Advance Northumberland (landowner) and its subsidiary Advance Green Futures Ltd to create a 275-hectare Potland Burn Habitat Bank; the approach used Rule 4 of the Statutory Biodiversity Metric, was reviewed by the Natural Capital team at Freeths, and specifically avoided purchasing statutory biodiversity credits as they were not considered financially attractive.