UK authorities ‘blindly accepted’ Iver datacentre environmental assurances, it’s claimed
The UK authorities is going through scrutiny for failing to do its due diligence on the environmental impacts of hyperscale datacentres, after admitting its resolution to overturn a denied planning permission request for a website in Iver ought to be quashed.
The location in query is the topic of a authorized problem raised by tech justice non-profit Foxglove in collaboration with environmental charity International Motion Plan, who claimed the federal government was improper to grant planning permission for the mission with out conducting an Environmental Impression Evaluation (EIA) first.
The mission, often called the West London Know-how Park (WLTP) growth, is being overseen by developer Greystoke, which desires to remodel the previous landfill website (positioned inside an space of inexperienced belt land) right into a hyperscale datacentre.
Buckinghamshire County Council, the native authority with accountability for granting planning permission for the mission, denied two earlier purposes by Greystoke to construct a datacentre there, with the primary rejection of its plans occurring in September 2022.
In response, the corporate sought to problem the primary of those planning permission denials by submitting an enchantment with Lee Rowley, the then under-secretary of state for native authorities and constructing security, who dismissed the case in October 2023.
One other planning utility for the location was then submitted for a barely bigger datacentre growth, totalling 72,000m2 in measurement, in March 2024 earlier than being rejected by native planning officers the next June.
In October 2024, affirmation was obtained that Greystoke’s enchantment in opposition to Buckinghamshire County Council’s resolution to dam the construct had been “recovered” by the newly put in Labour authorities, and description planning permission for the mission was granted on 9 July 2025.
As beforehand reported by Laptop Weekly, each Buckinghamshire County Council and the federal government’s planning inspectorate acknowledged that no EIA was wanted for the mission. This was primarily based on the truth that assurances had been supplied by Greystoke that the location itself would profit from air-cooled servers that might use minimal quantities of water, and that the datacentre wouldn’t have an opposed influence on native electrical energy provides.
It is a view Foxglove and International Motion Plan have vehemently contested of their authorized problem, which had its first courtroom listening to on 22 January 2026. Forward of that happening, the federal government despatched a authorized letter to Foxglove and International Motion Plan dated 19 January 2026, stating that its resolution to grant permission for the WLTP mission contained a “critical logical error” and its resolution ought to be “quashed”.
The letter, seen by Laptop Weekly and shared by Foxglove on the day of its courtroom listening to, states that it’s being despatched on behalf of the secretary of state for housing, neighborhood and native authorities, and confirms the federal government did initially conclude that the mission was not an “EIA growth”.
“As a part of that train pure assets use was assessed…[and] that evaluation relied on [an] Vitality Assertion and Sustainability Assertion, which between them outlined a collection of mitigation measures,” the letter acknowledged. “Not all of these mitigation measures, nevertheless, have been secured by the grant of permission.
“Accordingly, the secretary of state accepts that in screening out EIA primarily based on mitigation measures however then failing to safe these measures, there was a critical logical error…and the explanations given by the secretary of state for contemplating the event didn’t require an EIA have been insufficient.”
On this foundation, the letter concluded: “The secretary of state accepts that the declare is controversial and the permission [for the project] ought to be quashed.”
Regardless of this, Foxglove and International Motion Plan declare in an announcement that Greystoke is sticking to its weapons that the mission ought to be allowed to proceed, having opted to take part on this week’s courtroom motion.
Laptop Weekly contacted Greystoke for touch upon this level, together with requesting a response to the information of the federal government’s admission that the planning permission for the construct ought to be overturned. No response from Greystoke had been obtained on the time of publication.
Buckinghamshire County Council was additionally approached for a response, however no response was forthcoming on the time of publication from it both.
In an announcement, Foxglove co-executive Rosa Curling stated it shouldn’t take the specter of courtroom motion for the federal government to confess that its resolution to “blindly settle for” the environmental claims of huge tech corporations was “essentially improper”.
“For too lengthy, ministers have been placing the income of Trump-supporting tech billionaires forward of the pursuits of the British public. Nowhere has this been clearer than their willingness to power via large datacentres in opposition to the needs of the local people, with out a thought for the catastrophic injury they’ll trigger to our surroundings,” stated Curling.
“We’re inspired the federal government now seems to recognise that blindly accepting tech corporations’ magical guarantees in regards to the influence of their datacentres on our surroundings isn’t ok. As an alternative, there have to be strict authorized restrictions with tooth, and a compulsory Environmental Impression Evaluation for every new knowledge centre as a place to begin.”
In the meantime, International Motion Plan CEO Sonja Graham described the federal government’s backtracking on the difficulty as embarrassing and avoidable. “This embarrassing climb-down might have been averted had the federal government completed its job and scrutinised huge tech’s flimsy carbon commitments within the first place,” stated Graham.
“Silicon Valley deserted its inexperienced sheen the second [artificial intelligence] AI datacentres began to proliferate, which makes it all of the extra outstanding our authorities swallowed the AI Kool-Support with out a second thought for the impacts on individuals and planet.”
Foxglove and International Motion Plan launched their authorized motion in August 2025 with a crowdfunding enchantment, which – in that point – has gained the assist of greater than 900 people who’ve donated greater than £22,500 in funding.
Graham continued: “Individuals throughout the UK are more and more involved about datacentres’ proliferation and what it means for entry to water and energy. The federal government being asleep on the wheel like this may do nothing to reassure them.”
