The government has announced £40,000 funding for a heat network relating to the Hertfordshire M25 data centre plan.
In May 2025, then Housing Secretary Angela Rayner overturned Three Rivers District Council's decision to refuse the 4,000 sqm scheme – the size of 12 football pitches – on a field by Bedmond Road and the Abbots Langley M25.
Last week the government published details of community energy investment funding, with £1 billion divided up between a raft of projects.
A heat network to aid the new data centre has been granted £40,000 in funding, with the project titled Abbots Langley Data Centre Heat Network.
It is one of three projects in Hertfordshire to receive government money, with the other two in Letchworth and Ashwell.
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The government says that heat networks "form an important part of the government’s plan to reduce carbon and cut heating bills for customers".
While the data centre project itself is set to cost around £1 billion, the funding is for the potential use of a heat network as part of the scheme.
This would see the network distribute the heat from the data centre and deliver it to places like homes, schools and public buildings.
The government has said that the funding for 53 projects nationally represents the "biggest public investment in community energy in this country's history".
When the data centre was approved, TRDC leader Stephen Giles-Medhurst said: “Despite the people of Abbots Langley and further afield not welcoming this application and us fighting tooth and nail to protect this green space, both the planning inspector and the Secretary of State believed that the data centre did not constitute inappropriate development in the green belt."
He added: “In my view, as leader of Three Rivers District Council, there is little gain for the village apart from an extra country park and some low-level employment. What this decision means is putting up with mega warehouse-type buildings across our green belt.”
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