Apatura’s proposal to build a major data centre at Glenbervie Business Park has created a huge amount of interest, not just locally, but across Scotland and the rest of the UK too.
In June, we submitted a detailed planning application to Falkirk Council – including a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) – which we hope addresses many of the concerns raised.
Understandably, residents want to know what it will mean for the landscape, the environment and their community.
They also want to know whether the predicted jobs are real.
I would like to tackle the jobs question head on.
Firstly, data centres are not new.
They have been a feature of our daily lives for decades – central Scotland has long been home to a few, for example in the Gyle – where they quietly power much of everyday life – our online banking and card payments, the NHS records our GPs rely on, the shopping we do online and the video calls we take from the kitchen table.
But the new generation of data centres will be much bigger – including the one proposed at Larbert – driven by ever-rising consumer demand, the need for large scale compute (for climate modelling and medical research, for example) and, yes, the demands of emerging technology such as AI.
This would be a major development – costing more than £2 billion – and it would bring real jobs in its wake, both during construction, and during its operational life.
Many of these are well-paid, skilled roles, which would be fulfilled locally.
As part of our planning application, we commissioned independent economic analysts Glic to look at the numbers – using a respected methodology used by the Scottish Government and drawing on the evidence of other comparable data centres.
Glic calculate that, if approved, the Larbert Data Centre Campus would bring more than 10,000 net job years during construction of which nearly 2,000 could be fulfilled locally.
More than half of these roles would be in the actual construction of the site (builders, electricians, construction workers etc) – whilst the remainder would be ‘indirect or induced’ – meaning related business activity, such as sub-contractors in the supply chain and other activities which benefit from the construction, such as local accommodation providers, taxis, shops and food retailers.
Then, once running, the data centre would support more than 1,300 long-term jobs across Scotland.
Of these, the detailed estimate is 515 permanent local jobs in the Falkirk area.
That includes 297 jobs on the site and 218 supported through local suppliers and spending by workers and their families.
The local jobs will not all be computer roles. A working data centre needs engineers and IT technicians. It also needs electricians, maintenance teams, security staff, building services and many other suppliers.
These should also be good, well-paid jobs. The average salary across the local roles is estimated at more than £54,000. For the 297 on-site roles, it is almost £60,000.
These numbers have not been plucked from the air.
In their calculations, Glic used Scottish Government economic tables, national accounts and official employment data, and counted direct jobs, supply-chain jobs and jobs supported when wages are spent in the local economy.
The proposed Larbert Data Centre could be a nationally significant investment in the local economy – located on an area of industrially zoned land which has lain vacant for many years.
The local authority of course needs to heed local concerns and will undoubtedly examine the evidence carefully.
But the jobs case is strong.
Scotland could be a world leader in data centres, and the Larbert campus offers a unique opportunity to bring long-term, well-paid work to Larbert, Stenhousemuir and the wider Falkirk area.
We would be happy to commit to a local employment and skills plan, together with publishing local hires to showcase that data centres do create local jobs.
