The £10 billion neighbour: what Blackstone's Cambois data centre means for Blyth
On the old Britishvolt ground at Cambois, the UK's biggest-ever single inward investment is going vertical. Here's what's actually being built — and why it matters if you're working in the area.
For a couple of years the field at Cambois, just north of Blyth, was best known for a factory that never happened. The Britishvolt gigafactory collapsed in 2023 and took a lot of local optimism with it. What's gone up in its place is, on paper, far bigger.
What it is
Blackstone, through its data-centre company QTS, is developing a ten-building campus on the former coal-fired power station and Britishvolt site at Cambois. The headline figure is around £10 billion — described by Northumberland County Council and the government as the largest single inward investment the UK has ever secured. It is, bluntly, an enormous piece of digital infrastructure landing on the edge of a town of 40,000 people.
Where it's up to
This is past the press-release stage. Outline permission came in March 2025; the council signed off the detailed "Reserved Matters" for phase one on 2 December 2025, clearing the first buildings. Enabling works run in stages through 2026, vertical construction on the first buildings is scheduled for early 2026, and phase one is expected to be operational around 2029, with the full campus completing later still. A data campus of this size isn't a quick build; it's a programme that runs for years.
The bit that matters locally
Blackstone's own figures point to around 1,200 long-term construction roles over the build, hundreds of permanent operational jobs, and a possible further 2,700 across the wider local economy. The important word is long-term. This isn't a six-week job. It's a steady, multi-year flow of engineers, project managers, fit-out trades and specialist contractors who need somewhere sensible to live while they're here — many on rotations, many travelling in from outside the region.
What this means if you're staying in the area. A project running to 2029 on Blyth's doorstep is exactly the kind of work that fills professional accommodation for months at a time. A whole house near the site — proper kitchen, multiple bathrooms, parking for the vans, self check-in for shift patterns — beats a scatter of hotel rooms for a team, and it's invoiced cleanly to the company. See our Northumberland contractor accommodation, or contractor stays across the North East.
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