Microsoft has lodged plans for a major new data centre campus at a former power station in Leeds.

Microsoft’s subsidiary, MSFT MCIO Ltd, has submitted an application to Leeds City Council for a site of Skelton Grange.

Harworth Group exchanged contracts in June 2024 for the conditional sale of 48 acres of land at the former Skelton Grange Power Station, with the sale of the first plot for about £53m completed in December.

The newly-submitted hybrid application seeks full planning permission for the development of a data centre campus, together with associated energy, power and water infrastructure, access, security and landscaping.

This element would include three data centre buildings, each with a gross internal area of about 424,000 sq ft.

Outline planning permission is also sought for about 160,000 sq ft of warehouse and distribution development, with HGV charging bays, access, parking and landscaping.

The detailed element of the scheme is expected to create and sustain 163 net full time equivalent (FTE) additional operational jobs, of which 93 would be at the national and 70 at the regional level.

The outline component would create and sustain 207 net FTE additional operational jobs; 118 national level and 89 regional.

The proposed development could also generate an average of 741 jobs during the six-and-a-half–year construction period, and generate a direct GVA at regional level of £9.7m.

A planning statement submitted as part of the application said: “There will be very important economic gains from the scheme, in terms of the creation of jobs and because of the vital role that data centres play in supporting the wider economic infrastructure and the growth of the digital economy at a local, regional and national scale. 

 

“It should be reiterated that, because of the type of development proposed, the need for it and the organisation behind it, there can be confidence that these benefits will be delivered and that development will start quickly and follow the high standards set out in the application and the documents that support it.”

The project team includes Savills, TTSP, HDR, Ramboll and BMD.

Harworth purchased the former Skelton Grange power station site in December 2014 for about £3m. 

To date, Harworth has initiated remediation and enabling works, optimised the planning status of the site, and acquired a further 21 acres of adjoining land. 

The company has also secured a series of transactions including a 19.5-acre land sale to Enfinium in 2020, which is developing a 49MW energy-from-waste (EfW) renewable electricity generation facility for its own operation, the grant of a lease in 2021 to facilitate the development of a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) facility on a 5.7-acre demise, and exchanging on the conditional sale to Microsoft.

Once the development is complete, Skelton Grange is expected to provide about 250,000 sq ft of Grade A industrial and logistics space, a hyperscale datacentre, a BESS facility, an EfW facility, and circa 28 acres of land returned to natural habitat alongside improved green travel infrastructure. Harworth has estimated that it will represent in excess of £4bn of inward investment.

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