Site DNA site report · beeston royds · 4 aug 2026

Beeston Royds, Leeds

The North's largest published headroom, on the M621 edge of a live AI data centre market. And the report that shows what the layer is for: the land test fails here — green belt starts 174 m from the substation and the ownership is housing, not industry.

137 MW

headroom, 2026

BSP

132/33kV supply point

7,336

parcels in 1.2 km

174 m

to green belt boundary

26 ha

largest single parcel

brownfield sites, all small

The map — every layer, togglable

Beeston Royds

137.3 MW

headroom 2026 · green belt 174 m NE

Rings 500 m / 1 km. Parcels thinned to ≥0.1 ha plus everything within 400 m — urban Leeds is thousands of house plots. The green belt wraps the substation's north-east side. Double-click to enable scroll zoom.

Layers

Power

Substation	Role	Headroom 2026	2030	2035
Beeston Royds 132/33kV	BSP	137.3 MW	holds	holds

Northern Powergrid NDP thermal demand headroom, DFES 2026 Holistic Transition scenario. NPG publishes MW forecasts by year, not a single MVA figure — treated as ≈MVA at near-unity power factor. Third-largest published figure in GB; largest outside NGED territory. The demand queue is not public — the figure is unverified against live applications until an NPG budget estimate confirms it.

Planning — 2.6 km box

✗Green belt — adjacent. Boundary 174 m NE of the substation; belt covers the north of the study area. Northward expansion is a green-belt argument from day one.
▲Tree preservation zones ×54 — mature-suburb density
▲Conservation areas ×2 — Morley, Beeston–Stank Hall
▲Agricultural land includes Grade 2 — best-and-most-versatile conflict on greenfield options
▲Brownfield ×16 — but 0.16–4.65 ha, mostly permissioned for housing; not AI-data-centre scale
✓SSSI — none
✓Article 4 — none
✓Flood — 10 features, minor watercourses only

Ownership — who holds the land

Owner	Titles*	Holding	Signals
Leeds City Council	1,040	Housing estates + highways, city side	—
Leeds Federated / Yorkshire Housing / 54 North / Together	627	Registered-provider housing stock across the zone	1 charge flag
Northern Powergrid (Yorkshire) plc	225	The DNO's own network estate	—
A Shade Greener LLPs	164	Rooftop-solar leases on housing — noise, not land	—

*Study-area counts (Leeds district, 402 matched roads, LS10–12/27). 5,252 proprietors screened, 627 matched to the signals layer, 84 flagged — flags sit in the small-landlord tail, nowhere strategic. The table is the finding: no commercial or industrial assembler holds meaningful ground here. HMLR CCOD Jun 2026.

Additional data — route and tier

Data	Source	Route	Tier
Budget estimate at Beeston Royds — confirms the 137.3 against the live queue	Northern Powergrid	Free application	Free
Ring re-run at 2–3 km toward the M621 / Gelderd Road industrial estates, same BSP	Site DNA layers	Same recipe, one day	Paid
Title detail on NPG's own 225 in-ring titles	HMLR official copies	£7 per title	Paid
Owner accounts and charges — 5,252 screened, 627 matched, 84 flagged	Companies House	Bulk data, already wired	Free

Comparable: Microsoft's live Leeds site is 4 miles east at Skelton Grange — ex-power-station plot, 27 acres, sold by Harworth for £51.2m (Jun 2024; resolution to grant Apr 2026). Legacy grid plus assembled single-owner land — the two layers this report screens.