How to resist a data centre

The UK government has big plans for data centres. Last November’s policy paper, Delivering AI Growth Zones, published alongside the new AI for Science Strategy, built on promises laid out in the AI opportunities Action Plan and the UK Compute Roadmap. These key documents outline how the government’s ambition for Britain to be a global AI superpower will be fulfilled. 

Data centres are now part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure – this means the relevant Secretary of State can overrule a local council’s decision to refuse planning. The government’s plan for economic growth depends on dozens of new data centres being built. It needs data centre capacity to rise from 1.6 gigawatts in 2024 to between 3.3 and 6.3 gigawatts by 2030. Flagship projects include a £10 billion AI data centre campus in Northumberland and a £4 billion data centre in Hertfordshire.

Data centres: engines of the AI age

Last Saturday I went to a workshop on “How to resist a data centre”. This session was part of Resisting Big Tech Empires – a conference at London South Bank University. The first speaker was Owen Espley, community campaigns manager at Global Action Plan.

It’s difficult to find out exactly how many data centres are currently being built, he says. There are 382 local authorities in the UK and each one has it own planning department. So you have to go onto each authority’s website and search through the planning applications for any data centre proposals. 

UK government spending on data centres is expected to reach at least £10 billion per year by 2029 (more than five times the amount that was spent in 2024). The total expenditure is enormous, says Owen. It’s more than was spent on the US highway system, the Apollo programme, or the Marshall Plan – that’s an awful lot of infrastructure.

Generative AI uses huge amounts of energy, but machine learning already brings many of the benefits, without coasting nearly as much in power. In the UK, data centre owners have lobbied successfully to not disclose how much energy their centre is using. There is growing pressure for data centre developers to disclose their projected impact on carbon emissions and water scarcity.

Jam tomorrow

Tim Bierley of Global Justice Now says that it’s best to frame the argument as one against power not progress. Protestors are often framed as Nimbys and Luddites, he says. But the question we need to ask ourselves is “who is this serving”?

Elon Musk has argued against concerns about job losses by saying there’ll be Universal High Income for everyone. But AI, says Tim, is a form of corporate capture – the aim is to get us, all industries and all governments reliant on AI – and then charge rent.

Tech leaders have been accused of longtermism while developing AI – they prioritse future generations and longterm problem-solving over solutions to issues impacting people living in the world today. Ex Google CEO Tim Schmidt said we should go all in on AI and break all our climate goals because AI is more likely than us to solve the climate problem. 

Even in the short term, the gains promised by AI are negligible. For example, 90% of promised jobs around a new data centre complex in Lanarkshire turned out to be for temporary construction workers. Meanwhile, the UK government quietly increased the AI emissions forecasts from data centres on its Compute Roadmap. 

AI and data centres impact on the following key Labour manifesto promises, says Tim:

1. Net Zero
2. New housing
3. Jobs

And we need to remind politicians that we’ll hold them to account.

Pain today

Rosa Curling from the nonprofit solicitors, Foxglove was the last to speak on the panel. She talked about a case recently won by Foxglove: the Woodlands data centre in Buckinghamshire.

After planning permission was refused by the local council, the then Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, overruled their decision and approved it. Foxglove’s argument was that if you want to approve a data centre you need to also consider the environmental costs. The data centre developer supplied figures for the environmental costs of all administrative tasks – such as staff boiling kettles, or switching on lights in the corridors, but these excluded the actual server and cooler running costs.

Environmental space is really unique in that legal costs are capped – so we should all use the law where possible, says Rosa. Eventually, the government and the data centre developer agreed to settle out of court. The judge ruled that the developer had to make promises regarding the limiting of environmental costs, which they were unable to make. This was the “first hump” for the UK government in terms of data centre rollouts, says Rosa. It clearly won’t be their last.

How data centres impact you

The planning system is heavily weighted against civil resistance because local councils get offered sweeteners so are incentivised to say yes to data centres. But people have a right to shape their own space. There are three areas in which data centres are being built:

1. Inner city data centres eg: Brick Lane serving the city
2. Suburban/ Green belt data centres – eg around London eg Potters Bar. This is where resistance is currently most active.
3. Post industrial/ brownfield sites eg Teeside. Hope is that sites will be used to regenerate jobs and employment but not the case.

Last year, construction analysts Barbour ABI reported that nearly 100 new data centres are being planned across the UK (there are currently 477). Many of these proposed data centres are in London. I see regular social media updates from the Save Brick Lane campaign. They’re currently fighting a multimillion pound proposal to turn the iconic Truman Brewery site into a data centre and associated retail spaces and luxury flats (with a small amount of social housing). 

Photo by İsmail Enes Ayhan on Unsplash