Government ministers will decide whether to approve plans for a data center campus at a former quarry in Bedfordshire, UK, after the project was designated as a development of national significance.

Real estate firm Questpit wants to develop the Quest Park Data Center campus on a 143-acre site at Ampthill Road, Stewartby, five miles south of the town of Bedford. The £9.3 billion ($12.3bn) project would see four data center buildings developed on the land, providing an eventual 720MW of IT capacity.

In April, Questpit requested a Development Consent Order (DCO) from the UK government, a move which would mean a decision on the project was taken away from local planners and put in the hands of Stephen Reed, Secretary of State in the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government (DHCLG). DCOs are designed to speed up planning permission for big infrastructure schemes.

Questpit also requested that the government treat the application as if statutory consultation had already taken place.

In its response, the DHCLG said it was granting the DCO, but that “consultation/engagement equivalent to statutory consultation has not been carried out in respect of the proposed application for planning permission.” It added no evidence had been provided “that any engagement has taken place other than with Central Bedfordshire Council and National Gas.” This means Questpit will need to carry out further consultation on the scheme before a decision is taken.

The data center would be powered by natural gas. Questpit’s application for the DCO notes that it intends to build a gas generation plant on the site to serve the data center, and said the land is near three major gas pipelines. The company also intends to build a STEM training center and offices on the land.

Planning permission for a film studio on the site was granted in 2023, but this project stalled when the company behind it, Verb Creative Holdings, went out of business.