UK authorities datacentre planning choices queried over environmental oversight admission
Permission for the event, dubbed the West London Know-how Park (WLTP) by its builders Greystoke, was granted by the federal government in early July 2025. That is regardless of Buckinghamshire Council twice denying planning permission for the undertaking on inexperienced belt safety grounds.
In Foxglove and International Motion Plan’s view, planning permission for the undertaking mustn’t have been granted with out an environmental influence evaluation (EIA) being carried out first.
For context, Buckinghamshire Council initially said the builders didn’t must submit an EIA, having obtained assurances from them about how little influence the undertaking would have on native power and water provides.
This view was later upheld by the planning inspectorate, when the federal government positioned Buckinghamshire Council’s planning permission denial for the undertaking below evaluate.
Authorities U-turns on planning approvals
Nonetheless, forward of the courtroom case’s first listening to on 22 January 2026, the federal government issued a authorized letter admitting that its choice to grant planning permission for the undertaking needs to be quashed.
The federal government stated within the letter – seen by Pc Weekly – that it had obtained assurances {that a} “suite of mitigation measures” can be in place that may negate the necessity for an EIA, but it surely admitted that not all of those measures had been secured on the time permission for the undertaking was granted.
“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 secretary of state accepts that the [legal] declare is debatable and permission [for the project] needs to be quashed.”
This admission has now prompted requires a reassessment of two different hyperscale datacentre tasks the federal government has beforehand determined ought to go forward, regardless of planning permission for them being initially denied at native authority stage.
Amongst these calling for a reassessment of previous tasks the federal government has given the inexperienced mild to, within the wake of the federal government’s U-turn on the WLTP undertaking, is Tom Hegarty, head of communications at Foxglove.
“That needs to be an pressing wake-up name to halt the mad rush to construct out huge datacentres at any value that has been an obsession of this authorities,” he advised Pc Weekly. “Having acknowledged the shoddy state of their choice at [WLTP], we have now to hope ministers will now study that pushing these power-guzzling monsters by means of and not using a thought for the environmental penalties isn’t the appropriate means ahead.”
It is a additionally view shared by Mark Butcher, founder and director of IT sustainability consultancy Posetiv Cloud, who stated the federal government’s stance on the WLTP growth makes it “troublesome, if not not possible” to justify not re-examining different giant datacentres accredited below related circumstances.
“On the very least, [these projects] needs to be reviewed for consistency,” Butcher advised Pc Weekly. “This isn’t about opposing datacentres in precept, however from a planning and authorized perspective, [it is] about making certain there may be credibility within the planning system and that due course of has been adopted.
“There may be additionally an essential planning-system angle right here. Inconsistent utility of EIAs creates actual issues for planners. It undermines skilled judgement, will increase authorized and judicial evaluate danger, and makes future choices more durable to defend.”
The federal government’s different green-lit tasks
Out of the opposite tasks the federal government has given its seal of planning approval to, one can also be primarily based in Iver, Buckinghamshire and is being overseen by US funding firm Affinius Capital. The federal government granted that growth permission to proceed in December 2024.
Pc Weekly contacted Affinius Capital for an replace on how the undertaking was progressing, given greater than a yr has handed since approval for the construct was granted. On the time of writing, no response had been obtained.
Nonetheless, Pc Weekly is conscious that the go-live date for that growth hinges on work the Nationwide Grid is doing within the native space to bolster power availability by means of the creation of its new Uxbridge Moor substation, which is due for completion in 2029.
The opposite hyperscale datacentre the federal government has given its blessing to is one other Greystoke growth, situated in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire. Planning for that undertaking was initially denied by Three Rivers District Council in January 2024, earlier than the federal government overturned that call in Might 2025.
As is the case with the WLTP growth, the native councils overseeing each tasks stated the builders didn’t must submit an EIA as a part of their planning purposes.
Pc Weekly contacted Greystoke for a progress replace on the Abbots Langley growth, however the firm stated it had no remark to make concerning the undertaking at the moment.
In line with Butcher, the actual fact one among these accredited developments has been retrospectively deemed to require an EIA leaves the federal government open to questions on why different tasks of comparable scale are being handled in another way. And that type of uncertainty and inconsistency is prone to concern buyers, but in addition builders plotting related tasks throughout the UK, he continued.
“[It will] probably push extra cautious capital in the direction of areas with clearer, extra predictable planning frameworks,” he stated. “From a authorities perspective, the method additionally appears to be like massively short-sighted. By prioritising velocity of approval and treating datacentres as nationally crucial infrastructure with out sturdy scrutiny, environmental and social dangers are successfully pushed all the way down to native authorities and communities.”
As talked about, two of the tasks the federal government has accredited are in the identical space, with roughly 10 miles separating them. They’re additionally set to be constructed on the outskirts of West London and throughout the South East, that are already densely populated with datacentres.
If builders had been mandated, for instance, to finish an EIA as a part of their planning permission purposes, it could make it simpler to evaluate the mixed and cumulative influence of constructing so many datacentres in a single space, added Butcher.
“Individually, websites might seem manageable, however with out EIAs there is no such thing as a correct mechanism to evaluate the mixed impact of a number of hyperscale developments on regional energy capability, water stress, carbon depth and neighborhood infrastructure,” he stated. “That’s precisely what we are actually seeing in London and the South East, and is a major a part of wider infrastructure and resilience danger assessments.”
One of many drawbacks of planning for tasks being seen on this siloed means will be seen from the issues beforehand raised in regards to the influence that the inflow of datacentres into West London, particularly, has had on the area’s power safety.
Talking to Pc Weekly, John Sales space, managing director of sustainability-focused IT consultancy Carbon3IT, stated that is exactly why the UK datacentre trade is so eager to see the federal government ship on its promised nationwide planning coverage assertion.
“We’ve been asking for planning steering for years and had been suggested {that a} nationwide planning coverage assertion can be printed in December 2025, however we’re nonetheless ready,” he stated. “If planning steering was in place, EIAs can be required, however most operators ask for a screening evaluation for EIA prior to stipulate planning. If a neighborhood authority says no, then the EIA continues to be most likely finished however simply not submitted.”
And datacentre operators are eager to do the appropriate factor and would quite submit an EIA than not as a result of they wish to be seen pretty much as good residents within the native communities the place they’re plotting to construct their server farms, stated Sales space, including: “Datacentres are attempting to be as environmentally sound as they are often, however with a confused coverage setting, that is troublesome for them – therefore our want for steering.”
Having planning approvals for datacentres primarily based on a set of requirements which can be being “constantly utilized” throughout totally different tasks can be an enormous profit to operators, stated Positiv Cloud’s Butcher. “Failing to do [so] dangers the accusations and perceptions that the planning system is biased and being utilized selectively, which in the end slows the sector down by means of opposition, authorized problem and lack of belief,” he stated.
By way of what needs to be contained in such steering, Foxglove’s Hegarty stated it could be good to see the inclusion of an EIA made a “obligatory baseline for any datacentre planning utility” as a place to begin.
“[We also need to] mandate credible and enforceable situations that require every datacentre operator, from Amazon to Equinix, to produce the complete energy wants of every web site by means of new renewables always, so that they don’t drain the grid and jack up costs for everybody else,” he stated. “In any other case, ministers may have demonstrated as soon as once more they’re comfortable for Massive Tech to reap the income of polluting datacentres whereas our surroundings carries the associated fee.”
Pc Weekly contacted the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Native Authorities for touch upon the factors raised on this story, however no response was forthcoming by the point of publication.
