Overview
- The Scottish Parliament voted on Wednesday to reject the Scottish Greens’ call for a pause on new hyperscale data‑centre planning applications while approving a government amendment to deliver national planning and spatial guidance by the end of the year.
- Public finance minister Hannah Mary Goodlad pledged new guidance for planning authorities before Christmas and confirmed environmental impact assessments will be required for proposals of 50 megawatts or more and that ministers must be notified of large applications.
- Scottish Labour’s amendment, which passed, says no local planning decisions should be made before the guidance is produced, a demand campaign groups say should trigger ministers to call in pending applications that are close to decision.
- The Greens and community campaigners warned that the first 24 proposed projects would create very large new electricity demand—Patrick Harvie said the cohort could equal roughly 1.5 times Scotland’s peak power use—and argued a moratorium is needed to assess cumulative impacts.
- The outcome leaves a fast‑moving policy window: ministers must produce coordinated rules and spatial limits that balance investor interest, local concerns over land use and pollution, and the practical limits of the electricity system while campaigners keep pressing for stronger controls.