Jonathan Jackman, VP EMEA at Kinaxis, explains why planning reform alone cannot solve the constraints holding back data centre growth.

The UK Government’s decision to make it easier for major data centre projects to enter the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime reflects a growing recognition that digital infrastructure is now critical to the country’s economic and technological future. For an industry working to keep pace with demand for AI and cloud computing, reducing planning delays is a welcome step.

But faster approvals alone will not solve the UK’s data centre capacity challenge.

While planning reform may help developments move more quickly through one stage of the process, it does not address the wider question of whether the power, equipment, materials and specialist expertise needed to build those facilities will be available when required. The real challenge is not simply approving more projects. It is ensuring they can be delivered at the pace the market expects.

Billion-pound decisions in a volatile environment

The surge in AI investment has fundamentally changed the infrastructure planning landscape. Demand for computing capacity continues to grow, but predicting how quickly that demand will materialise and what supporting infrastructure will ultimately be required remains difficult.

At the same time, every data centre project depends on a complex ecosystem of suppliers, utilities and infrastructure providers. Semiconductor availability, electrical equipment, cooling systems, construction resources and power capacity all influence whether a facility comes online as planned. A constraint in any one area can quickly create delays elsewhere.

This creates a difficult reality for developers. Decisions worth hundreds of millions or even billions of pounds must be made years in advance, while many of the assumptions underpinning those decisions can change within months.

Historically, planning has relied on identifying the most likely future and building a strategy around it. However, in markets characterised by uncertainty and rapid change, relying too heavily on a single forecast can create significant risk.

The challenge is no longer to predict one future accurately. Instead, it is to understand which decisions remain viable across multiple potential outcomes.

Organisations therefore need to consider a broader range of possibilities. What happens if geopolitical disruption suddenly restricts access to critical infrastructure or materials? What happens if key components face supply constraints? What happens if power capacity cannot be secured when a facility is ready to connect?

Answering these questions requires scenario planning. By modelling different potential futures and understanding the impact of each, organisations can identify vulnerabilities early, evaluate trade-offs more effectively and make decisions with greater confidence before significant capital is committed.

This reflects a broader shift away from static planning towards continuous decision-making that can adapt as conditions change.

Identifying bottlenecks before they become delays

One of the biggest risks facing the sector is that planning, supply and infrastructure decisions are often made in parallel without sufficient coordination.

A project may appear commercially viable based on projected demand, but that does not guarantee that the equipment, grid access or resources needed to deliver the promised capacity will be available at the right time.

The UK’s grid connection pipeline offers a clear example. In July 2026, Ofgem reported that contracted offers for electricity demand connections had risen from 41 GW in November 2024 to 125 GW in June 2025, with data centre projects accounting for a significant proportion of that increase. As demand for power intensifies, competition for access becomes a growing constraint on future development.

The same challenge exists throughout the wider supply chain. The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure is increasing pressure on semiconductors, networking equipment, cooling technologies and energy infrastructure. What may appear to be a local development decision increasingly depends on a much broader network of interconnected supply chains.

This is why visibility beyond immediate suppliers has become more important. Organisations need to understand dependencies across their wider network, identify long-lead components and assess alternatives before constraints become critical. These decisions cannot be made in isolation because delays in one area can quickly ripple across the entire programme.

Capacity cannot be planned in silos

Given the scale of investment involved, capacity decisions cannot sit with a single function.

Procurement teams understand supplier constraints and lead times. Operations teams understand what is technically achievable. Finance teams understand the level of investment the organisation can absorb, while commercial teams provide visibility into customer demand and growth expectations.

Bringing these perspectives together is increasingly important because each group is evaluating a different aspect of the same decision. Senior leaders need visibility into how demand, supply, infrastructure availability and financial exposure interact before committing to major expansion plans.

The organisations navigating this uncertainty most effectively are those that connect these inputs and evaluate trade-offs in a coordinated way, rather than relying on disconnected planning cycles. As supply chains become more interconnected and disruption becomes a more constant feature of the operating environment, the ability to align decisions across functions becomes increasingly valuable.

Planning reform is only the beginning

The Government’s decision to accelerate approval pathways for nationally significant data centre developments is an important signal of the sector’s growing strategic importance. It should help unlock investment and support future infrastructure growth.

However, speeding up planning approvals does not remove the underlying complexity involved in delivering these projects. In some cases, it may simply expose constraints elsewhere in the system more quickly.

Without sufficient power, equipment, skilled labour and supply chain resilience, faster approvals alone will not translate into faster delivery.

That is why planning reform should be viewed as the beginning of the conversation, not the conclusion. If the UK wants to translate its AI ambitions into sustainable infrastructure growth, equal attention must be paid to the resilience and coordination of the wider ecosystem supporting that development.

Ultimately, success will depend not only on how quickly projects can be approved, but on how confidently organisations can make decisions in an environment defined by uncertainty, interdependence and constant change.