A PROPOSED AI Growth Zone in North Lanarkshire could receive more than £80 million in annual electricity subsidies, despite household energy bills continuing to rise, campaigners have warned.
Representatives from Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) claim the Chapelhall AI zone could receive tens of millions of pounds annually once completed, while households face a 4% increase in energy prices from October.
There are currently several designated AI Growth Zones across the UK, including the North Lanarkshire development centred on DataVita's Chapelhall site, where major expansion work is underway.
In November 2025, the UK Government announced a subsidy of £24 per MWh for electricity costs in the zones.
Based on its calculations, APRS estimates DataVita's existing Chapelhall site, once its current extension is completed and reaches 40MW capacity, could receive around £6.7 million a year in subsidies.
But that figure could rise to more than £80 million a year if the wider 500MW AI area proposed for North Lanarkshire is fully developed.
Jen Thompson, who lives 50 metres from a data centre proposal in Chapelhall, said: "It's an outright slap in the face that the government even consider giving such massive subsidies for energy to the AI data centres when everyone in our village, whether they are working families, vulnerable, elderly or disabled, across the board - are seeing their bills go up.
"Our community is being asked to put up with a massive data centre that is planned for just beside my home, which will be running its huge diesel generators on hot days to help power the cooling.
"It's outrageous that they will also get millions of pounds in discounts off their electricity when we know that data centres push up electricity costs for ordinary people."
She said the public are being told that Scotland has so much renewable energy, while bills remain some of the highest in Europe. An estimate on Wednesday revealed a typical bill could soar by nearly £300 by January.
Thompson added: "We need our leaders to be doing their day job, instead of providing subsidies so AI data centre developers can rip up where we live to push our bills up even more."
The deadline for objections to development in Lanarkshire is September 30. However, APRS said the requirement for an Environmental Impact Assessment means there is likely to be a further consultation period once the assessment is published.
Kat Jones, director of APRS, said: "People living near the AI Growth Zone will find news that their energy bills are going up when they are already struggling to heat their homes pretty difficult to swallow.
"Especially when the electricity subsidies to the AI Growth Zone are worth millions of pounds a year. There is no reason that the UK Government should be subsidising hyperscale AI data centres; they use inconceivably large amounts of energy, employ extremely few people, and take up vast amounts of land.
"This is a subsidy for climate breakdown."
