The UK’s third-party data centre market is now the largest in Europe, according to DataCentrePricing.Com (DCP)’s latest report into data centre take-up around the world.

The UK’s data centres cover 840,000 sqm – that’s a substantial amount more than Germany’s with 509,000 sqm.

And this is set to increase every year, with DCP predicting an additional 40,000 sqm of data centres being added to the total every 12 months. Over the next year, for example, there are big plans to expand floor space at the Slough Data Centre, London, Farnborough and Cardiff clusters.

At present, Sloughs facility comprises 107,000 sqm, second only to London and the inner M25 area, which currently boasts 260,000 sqm dedicated to data centres.

New data centres are also planned, in major cities such as Edinburgh, Leeds and Newcastle, that will further highlight the UK as a European leader.

Although the UK has the largest data centre facilities in the whole of Europe, the cost of space is not the most expensive and this is why it’s so attractive to businesses. Average UK rack space rates are around €1,000, with Switzerland and Ireland charging higher premiums for space in their data centres

Unsurprisingly, these rates vary a lot across the UK, with those in London and within the M25 an average of 42% higher than Leeds and Newcastle.

“Increasingly, Data Centre Providers are competing to provide cloud connectivity to the key Cloud Service Providers via a cloud exchange aiming to attract the enterprise customer to the facility – which is driving the Data Centre clusters’ status as a connectivity hub,“ the report explained. “And the amount of connectivity available from a Data Centre facility helps determine whether a price premium can be charged – the more connectivity available the higher the price premium.”