Plans for expanding the infrastructure of London have polarized opinion in the data center industry, with some critics claiming it could make the UK economy less competitive.

The London Infrastructure Plan 2050, announced by Mayor of London Boris Johnson last week, outlines how the capital’s infrastructure must be expanded to keep it in the top tier of world cities.

The plan – described as a £1.3tn wish list – details objectives such as improving transport, and investing in nine new electricity substations - in order to support a population that is expected to reach 11 million by 2020.

Chapter 16 of the plan unveils the Greater London Authority’s ambitions to support the IT industry with aspirations to install more fiber broadband, mobile broadband and encourage the pioneering of future methods of wireless internet delivery.

It promises to make better use of radio spectrum to address the coming ‘capacity crunch’.

Plans include making London the first capital city in the world to deploy 5G in the 2020s.

To support this, the Mayor’s Office announced the development of a new Energy Infrastructure Plan.

The plan received a mixed reaction from the UK’s data center industry leaders.

“The UK capital is closer to megacity status and the London Infrastructure Plan 2050 reflects that to support this growth,” said Ian McVey, director of marketing at Interxion.

“We must ensure the city remains competitive with those in emerging economies such as Mumbai and Guangzhou,” said McVey.

The plan raises the profile and importance of the IT infrastructure function as the crucial backbone to the success of these types of smarter cities and a megacity is about making smarter connections between citizens, the government and businesses.

Virtus Data Centres CEO Neil Cresswell said London is becoming increasingly more important as a center of converging technical and media innovation.

“With a world class government and the financial, education and entertainment centers that exist here, it’s like having several global cities in one place, which is why businesses want to have a presence in London,” Cresswell said.

However, Chris Williams, business director for Next Generation Data, cautioned that centralizing technology and infrastructure investment in London might not support sustainable growth and economic continuity.

“It’s a form of centralization that is not necessarily beneficial to the country,” Williams said.

Williams said the UK’s investment unfolds have become very localized, whereas the strongest economies in the world don’t have the same single point of failure.

“Look at the German and the US economies. They have very distributed areas of industry and they are much stronger for it,” Williams said.

“Why would you want to build more in urban areas which are already densely populated and it’s difficult to expand?”