UK development is increasingly tied to power availability. We have previously highlighted the critical role of energy in data centre development, however this is not limited to data centres, with residential and industrial schemes requiring a greater dependency on power than ever before.
In addition, power and energy are moving to the forefront of development governance with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) introducing the availability of energy and utility infrastructure as criteria to establish if a scheme is significant in the August 2026 iteration of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
Policy W1 of the new NPPF, under section 10 is titled, ‘Securing clean energy and water’, specifically stating that emerging local plans should be informed by engagement with utility providers, regulators and network operators. This is to ensure that decisions on the allocation of land in development plans are informed by an understanding of energy supply and network capacity. The policy also states that decisions should consider the impact of planned growth, as well as the implementation of strategic infrastructure plans, such as Regional Energy Strategic Plans (RESPs).
The increased emphasis on energy supply within the NPPF will focus the attention of both councils and planning inspectors on the topic when assessing the suitability and deliverability of potential sites for allocation in a local plan. The additional focus will make these potentially determinative issues when choosing sites that may be in competition with each other.
Energy is also key for residential property development with the introduction of low-carbon interventions becoming a planning requirement and increasing demand from end customers. Traditionally residential properties were gas or oil heated, powered only by grid, and had power infrastructure ready for small domestic loads (with white goods often commanding high energy usage). Today’s new-build property will often benefit from an EV charger, air source heat pump and solar panels.
We estimate that the typical residential property will as a consequence of these changes have moved from an 18.4kVA single-phase supply in the early 2000s to properties increasingly requiring a three-phase connection, equivalent to around 69kVA, by 2026. In aggregate across a new development, this can lead to a very significant increase – nearly fourfold - in connection size.
For the industrial market EV, eHGV, automation and refrigeration all lead to considerable increases in required connection size. Typical industrial builds at the turn of the century had 69-100kVA power supplies, with gas heating facilities. Today most industrial units desire a minimum of 1MVA, increasing the grid demand by ~10x; with advanced manufacturing and refrigeration facilities regularly needing a connection of several times this size.
The new NPPF’s recognition of grid capacity as a factor in determining development, through policies E1 and E2, and the new Chapter 10 marks a real shift. The market has understood the importance of power for some time, but until now it has sat largely outside planning policy itself. The energy world has already been through major reform via Ofgem’s TM04+ “first ready, first connected” changes to the connections queue and is going further still with Ofgem’s July 2026 Curate consultation, which proposes a financial commitment fee at connection offer acceptance and stricter delivery milestones, aimed at clearing speculative data centre applications from the connection queue.
Planning policy highlights that energy availability is no longer a technical afterthought in the selection of sites for development, but a central determinant of it.
Contact Sam Nicole or Matt Dawber
Queue discipline: Separating signal from noise in UK power access
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