Data Centers in Leeds

Leeds – Northern UK's Connectivity Hub

Executive Summary

Leeds is a primary colocation market for businesses requiring low-latency access to Northern England and Scotland. Its combination of carrier diversity and exceptional disaster resilience makes it a strategic choice for production workloads and disaster recovery sites, securing digital assets and ensuring uptime for UK-wide operations.

Leeds: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Leeds provides a reliable and well-connected environment for digital infrastructure. The market is characterized by a healthy mix of national and regional providers located in 17 data centers, ensuring competitive interconnection options.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: With 7 providers, the market offers access to dozens of unique network carriers as of September 2025. Carrier-neutral facilities are common, allowing customers the flexibility to connect with their preferred providers without restriction.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: There are no direct public cloud on-ramps within Leeds data centers. Secure, private connections to cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud (GCP), and Microsoft Azure are typically established through dedicated links to the primary UK cloud hubs in Manchester and London.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): While major public peering is concentrated in London and Manchester, Leeds is home to IXLeeds, a regional internet exchange that facilitates local traffic exchange, reducing latency for users across Northern England.

Bare Metal: Bare metal server options are available from multiple providers in the Leeds market, offering dedicated compute for performance-sensitive applications. Providers such as Hivelocity and OVHcloud can serve customer needs in the region.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial power costs in Leeds average approximately £0.17/kWh as of September 2025. This competitive pricing, combined with a national grid mix that includes 40–50% renewables, makes it an efficient and sustainable location for deploying infrastructure.

Power Grid Reliability: The power grid serving the primary data center zones in Leeds is reliable and well-engineered. Facilities are supported by redundant power feeds from multiple grid substations, meeting the high-uptime demands of modern enterprise applications.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers in Leeds offer low-latency connectivity to one of the UK's largest financial and professional services hubs outside of London. This proximity is critical for financial trading, legal services, and digital media companies headquartered in the region.

Regional Market Reach: Leeds is an ideal hub for serving the more than 15 million people across Yorkshire, the North East of England, and Scotland. Its central location on the UK's fiber backbone ensures excellent performance for services delivered throughout the northern half of the country.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: The United Kingdom does not currently offer specific tax incentives or grants for data center construction or operation. Businesses benefit from the country's standard corporate tax structure and stable fiscal environment.

Natural Disaster Risk

The United Kingdom has a very low natural disaster risk profile, and Leeds is an exceptionally secure location within it. The overall INFORM Risk score is 2.1 out of 10, placing it in the "Very Low" risk category as of September 2025.

Key natural hazard scores for the region are minimal:

• River Flood: 5.7/10
• Drought: 1.6/10
• Earthquake: 0.1/10

The risk of coastal flooding, tsunamis, and tropical cyclones is negligible for this inland location. This low-risk profile makes Leeds a superior choice for building resilient infrastructure for primary and secondary disaster recovery sites.