Teesworks data centre campus (former Redcar Sinter Plant), Redcar
A data centre campus of up to 462,419 sqm on the former Redcar Sinter Plant at Teesworks, the former Redcar steelworks. Redcar and Cleveland Council granted reserved matters (R/2025/0382/ESM) on 1 August 2025 under the site's 2022 outline permission, despite bp's objection that it clashed with the H2Teesside hydrogen plant. No end user has been confirmed: Google was reported in talks in September 2025, and Private Eye reported in June 2026 that Anthropic had agreed in principle to buy 222 acres (unsigned, not confirmed by Anthropic). In late October 2026 National Grid agreed to buy 73.3 acres at Dorman Point for a 400 kV substation of about 1.44 GW, due by the end of 2029, to power a data centre on the site. Council papers in April 2026 recorded no development on site.
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- Operator / developer
- South Tees Group / Teesworks Ltd
- Location
- Redcar, North East, United Kingdom
- Status
- Approved
- Facility type
- Data centre
- AI relevance
- High — AI/compute led
- Floor area
- 462,419 m²
Power & grid
- Grid connection
- National Grid Electricity Transmission agreed in late Oct 2026 to buy 73.3 acres at Dorman Point, Teesworks, for the Tees Dock (Teesside Node A) 400 kV substation, initially about 1.44 GW (1,440 MVA) and due by end 2029, feeding a private-wire network to a new data centre plus BESS. Balfour Beatty reported as substation contractor. Substation itself still needs planning (outline application planned autumn 2026).
Planning
- Planning route
- Local planning (TCPA)
- Planning reference
- R/2025/0382/ESM
- Planning decision
- Reserved matters (appearance, landscaping, layout, access and scale) granted 1 August 2025 under outline permission R/2020/0821/ESM, despite an objection from bp linked to its H2Teesside project.
- Decision date
- 1 August 2025
- Land area
- 89.8 ha
Benefits vs drawbacks
Drawbacks
- bp objected that the data centre was incompatible with its H2Teesside hydrogen project; the two schemes were assessed as unable to share the siteSource
Timeline
Sources
- Planning application R/2025/0382/ESM: reserved matters for data centre campus (decision: grant)
Secondary source · Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (primary)
- South Tees Group letter to SoS re H2Teesside, 1 Aug 2025 (confirms RMA R/2025/0382/ESM)
Secondary source · Planning Inspectorate (primary) · 2025-08-01
- Growth Scrutiny Improvement Committee additional papers, 23 Apr 2026 (permission granted Aug 2025; no development on site)
Secondary source · Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (primary) · 2026-04-23
- Tees Dock Substation project page
Secondary source · National Grid (primary)
- Balfour Beatty to build Britain's biggest substation job
Secondary source · Construction Enquirer (secondary) · 2026-11-02
- National Grid plans massive new substation to support Teesside data center plans
Secondary source · ITPro (secondary) · 2026-11
- Google considers data center in Teesside, UK - report
Secondary source · DatacenterDynamics (secondary) · 2025-09
- Ben Houchen responds to Teesworks 'deal of the century'
Secondary source · North East Bylines (secondary)
Last verified
6 November 2026
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