Press release: UK Government admits “serious error” in forcing through hyperscale data centre without environmental protections
The UK government has admitted its decision to force through the construction of a major new hyperscale data centre in England contained a “serious logical error” and should be “quashed”.
The climbdown from government came in a legal letter sent this week to tech justice non-profit Foxglove and environmental charity Global Action Plan, who brought the decision to a Planning Appeal at the High Court today.
Last year, ministers overruled the decision of Buckinghamshire Council to reject the proposed new data centre at Woodlands Park in Buckinghamshire.
Despite the huge energy consumption of hyperscale data centres, in the letter overruling the council’s decision, the government included just one paragraph addressing the potential power and environmental cost of the new facility.
In response to the Government’s decision, Foxglove and Global Action Plan launched the UK’s first legal challenge to a hyperscale data centre – focusing on the Government’s failure to properly consider the energy use and environmental impact of the new data centre.
However, on Monday this week, the Government wrote to Foxglove and Global Action Plan to formally accept that its decision to grant permission for the data centre should be quashed.
Lawyers for the Government admitted that they failed to put in place measures to ensure the developer Greystoke and the future operator would be held to the commitments they made on mitigating the data centre’s climate impact.
The new generation of ‘hyperscale’ data centres being planned across the UK use vast amounts of electricity, which will cause a high level of carbon emissions.
The Government has acknowledged that it made the wrong decision in allowing the data centre to go ahead without binding commitments from the developer on how they would reduce its environmental impact and agreed with Foxglove and Global Action Plan that the Secretary of State’s decision should be quashed.
Foxglove co-executive director Rosa Curling said: “It shouldn’t take us having to drag the Government to court for them to admit their decision to back Big Tech’s polluting data centres was fundamentally wrong.
“For too long, ministers have been putting the profits of Trump-supporting tech billionaires ahead of the interests of the British public. Nowhere has this been clearer than their willingness to force through massive data centres against the wishes of the local community, without a thought for the catastrophic damage they will cause to our environment.
“We’re encouraged that the Government now appears to recognise that blindly accepting tech companies’ magical promises about the impact of their data centres on our environment isn’t good enough. Instead, there need to be strict legal restrictions with teeth, and a mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment for each new data centre as a starting point.”
Global Action Plan CEO Sonja Graham said:
“This embarrassing climb-down could have been avoided had the Government done its job and scrutinised Big Tech’s flimsy carbon commitments in the first place.
“Silicon Valley abandoned its green sheen the moment AI data centres started to proliferate, which makes it all the more remarkable our Government swallowed the AI Kool-Aid without a second thought for the impacts on people and planet.
“People across the UK are increasingly concerned about data centres’ proliferation and what it means for access to water and power. The government being asleep at the wheel like this will do nothing to reassure them.
“We urgently need tight, legally binding environmental standards for all new data centres, to ensure that Big Tech profits don’t come at the expense of escalating carbon emissions or household bills. Without them, the interests of communities across the UK will continue to be subordinate to those of the US tech billionaires.”