QTS/Blackstone Cambois (Northumberland) data center, Blyth, England

QTS, owned by Blackstone, is preparing a data center campus of up to 10 buildings at Cambois, a village in south-east Northumberland, United Kingdom, on the site of shuttered coal power stations. The investment could reach £10 billion, and QTS told DCD the site will support 720MW of critical IT load.

The project was announced in 2024 at the site of the former Blyth Power Station, after the battery company Britishvolt cancelled its factory plans amid bankruptcy proceedings. Northumberland County Council granted planning permission in March 2025 and approved preparatory works on the site in August 2025. In December 2025 councillors approved the first phase of development, the first two of up to ten data centre buildings. Enabling groundworks began in October 2025. In an April 2026 planning statement, QTS said it intends to accelerate delivery, with construction of the first two data centres scheduled to begin later in 2026, operations slated for 2029, and two more due by 2030, a year ahead of the original schedule.

The campus would total up to 540,000 square metres and use QTS's closed-loop water system. The council expects hundreds of long-term operating jobs and 1,200 construction jobs, and will receive a £110m fund for investment along the new Northumberland Line as part of the deal. The North East was designated one of the UK's AI Growth Zones in 2025, which increases a project's grid connection priority.

Local leaders have backed the scheme. "We want this development from QTS to take place as soon as we possibly can," said Ian Lavery, the Labour MP for Blyth and Ashington. "It is integral that local people come first in the construction phase and operation phase," Lavery said. Another developer, Wansbeck Regeneration, has proposed a second data centre just north of the QTS site at West Sleekburn.

Planning decisions on later phases rest with Northumberland County Council's Strategic Planning Committee.