Data centres and airport expansions among projects planned as Starmer pledges to deregulate

Ministers have pledged to boost eight ‘growth-driving’ sectors as part of the government’s industrial strategy.

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Source: Number 10 Flickr

Keir Starmer speaking at the International Investment Summit in Guildhall today

The government today published a consultation paper on its strategy which is called “Invest 2035” and aims to “ease the investor journey and create long-term, inclusive, secure and sustainable growth”.

It said it will channel support to advanced manufacturing; clean energy industries; creative industries; defence; digital and technologies; financial services; life sciences and professional and business services.

The government will prioritise “subsectors” within these eight broad areas “where there is evidence that policy can address barriers to growth” and create “sector plans” to be published as part of the final strategy alongside a multi-year spending review in the spring.

It said: “Ambitious and targeted sector plans will be designed in partnership with business, devolved governments, regions, experts, and other stakeholders, through bespoke arrangements tailored to each sector.”

The publication of the consultation paper came as the government hailed £63bn of private funding for UK projects, at its International Investment Summit today. The full list of projects - some of which have been announced previously - include airport expansions, data centres, green infrastructure and energy projects. (See full list in the box below) 

Rachel Reeves, chancellor of the exchequer, said the investments are “a sign of the confidence in the British economy”. 

“It matters because it will support the growth of businesses big and small across the UK. Helping them create new jobs and making people better off,” she said.

Later at the summit, Keir Starmer pledged to get rid of unnecessary regulation, describing it as the “biggest supply-side problem we have in our country”.

He said: “We’ve also got to look at regulation – across the piece.

“Where it is needlessly holding back the investment we need to take our country forward, where it is stopping us building the homes, the data centres, the warehouses, grid connectors, roads, trainlines, you name it…then mark my words, we will get rid of it.”

He added: “We will rip out the bureaucracy that blocks investment, we will march through the institutions and we will make sure that every regulator in this country, especially our economic and competition regulators, takes growth as seriously as this room does.”

The final industrial strategy will be published in spring 2025, alongside a multi-year spending review. The six-week consultation, which opened today, asks for input on 35 questions, including how the most important “sub-sectors” should be identified, how the government’s proposed Industry Strategy Council can best support the strategy and how it should be monitored and evaluated. 

Full list of investments announced in the run-up to and during today’s International Investment Summit

The following projects, some of which have been announced previously, make up the £63bn of investment cited by ministers today

  • Spanish energy firm Iberdrola doubling their investment in the UK, through Scottish Power, from £12bn to £24bn over the next four years. This includes £4bn for the East Anglia 2 wind farm off the Suffolk coast
  • Blackstone confirmed a £10bn investment in Blyth, Northumberland to create one of the largest artificial data centres in Europe, creating 4,000 jobs, including 1,200 construction roles
  • Amazon Web Services announced an £8bn investment last month which is estimated to support around 14,000 jobs per year at local businesses, including those across the company’s data centre supply chain such as construction, facility, maintenance, engineering and telecommunications.
  • CCUS investors reached an agreement with the government that ministers say will unlock £8bn of private investment to launch carbon capture clusters in North-west and North-east England
  • Sustainable energy providers Orsted and Greenvolt confirmed £8bn and £2.5bn of investment respectively in their planned offshore wind farms.
  • US-based data centre developer CyrusOne announced plans to expand their investment into the UK to £2.5bn over the coming years. Subject to planning permission, two data centres should be operational by Q4 2028
  • Octopus Energy has committed to a £2bn investment in renewable energy generation, including four new solar farms in Bristol, Essex, East Riding of Yorkshire and Wiltshire
  • SeAH Wind has made an additional £225m investment into wind technology manufacturing in Teesside. This brings their total investment into the site at Teesworks up to £900m
  • IT company CloudHQ is developing its new £1.9bn data centre campus in Didcot. It is expected to create 1,500 jobs during construction, and 100 permanent jobs once fully operational.
  • Macquarie supporting investment of £1.3bn into new green infrastructure including its Island Green Power solar farm in Stow
  • Californian software company ServiceNow confirmed plans to invest £1.15bn into its UK business over the next five years.
  • Manchester Airports Group is investing more than £1.1bn in London Stansted Airport to expand its existing terminal by around a third, help secure new air routes to key business and leisure destinations, boost local supply chains and create 5,000 jobs. This includes around £600m to extend the terminal and £500m to deliver a suite of improvements to the existing terminal building and wider airport estate.
  • Eren Holdings confirmed a £1bn investment in the redevelopment of Shotton Mill in Deeside, North Wales which is set to become the UK’s largest recycled paper manufacturing campus.
  • Network Rail and London & Continental Railways are creating a new property company which will attract additional private and public sector investment with the potential to deliver brownfield regeneration schemes across the rail estate with a value exceeding £1bn.
  • Specialised cloud company CoreWeave is building on its £1bn investment announced in May and the opening of its European headquarters in London by investing a further £750m in the UK to support the demand for critical AI infrastructure.
  • Dubai-based logistics giant DP World is investing up to £1bn in its London Gateway container port operation. This new investment will fund two additional berths and a second rail terminal
  • Holtec, a major US advanced nuclear engineering company, has confirmed a significant investment of £325m in a new factory in South Yorkshire which will supply materials for civil and defence nuclear industries.
  • BW Group proceeding with a £500m investment, which includes new battery energy storage projects in Hampshire and Birmingham.
  • Eli Lilly and Company is collaborating with government through a memorandum of understanding which will see the pharmaceutical giant intending to commit £279m to tackle significant health challenges – including obesity.
  • Associated British Ports (ABP), the UK’s largest port operator, has announced a £200m+ investment in a new freight ferry terminal at the Port of Immingham.
  • Imperial College London is investing £150m to build The WestTech Corridor - a new “innovation ecosystem” in West London
  • Haleon has received planning permission to develop a new £130m Global Oral Health Innovation Centre in Weybridge, Surrey.

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