The battle rages on in the UK over data centres
As mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz has a lot to deal with. Her London borough is struggling with entrenched poverty and the capital Highest price of residents stuck in temporary housing. But midway through her second term, Fiaz has a new plan to turn things around. She believes AI could drive millions of pounds of economic growth, and she is campaigning for Newham to get a piece of it. “We want to be able to capture the opportunities of the data economy, and data centres are a core part of that economy,” she said.
Fiaz’s support for server farms reflects the enthusiasm of a new generation of Labour politicians expected to be elected to power in the UK election this weekend. After 14 years of centre-right Conservative rule, polls predict that voters will back the centre-left Labour Party’s pledge to boost economic growth and embrace the potential of AI—in part by making it easier to build more data centers all over the country.
Last month, Newham approved the country’s newest data centre, on an industrial plot overlooking the River Thames. The plans were welcomed by some residents, who had campaigned fiercely against it. new truck warehouse were destined for the same location. “Everyone breathed a sigh of relief,” Sam Parsons said of Royal Wharf Residents Associationrepresents 1,600 people who live in a nearby housing complex. Still, Parsons personally has concerns—mostly about the noise the data center might generate once construction is complete. “There’s a place in the U.S. where residents have a terrible time with this noise,” he said, referring to report out of Virginia last year. On Thursday morning in Newham, a handful of people WIRED spoke to as they walked past London’s City Hall near the data center site said they were unaware of the plans. Most local residents seemed unconcerned about how the 210-megawatt infrastructure would impact the already heavily built-up area, but one resident, Paul, who declined to give his last name, summed up the general sentiment: “We don’t need it,” he said.
If Labour is elected to power this week, ministers will have to convince people across the UK now Europe’s largest data center marketwhy they need more and decide where to put them.
Discontent is rising across the country, with protests especially strong in areas known as “green belts,” swaths of rural land designated to block urban development. The Labor Party is well aware that its plans to make it easier to build data centers risk sparking conflict between developers and local residents, according to two people familiar with internal party discussions. Residents in Amsterdam, FrankfurtAnd Dublin clashed with data center developers, complaining about the buildings’ insatiable demand for electricity and water. All three cities have since imposed restrictions on new development projects.
“The question for national politicians, not us, is: What does the country value most?” said Jane Griffin, a spokeswoman for the Colne Valley Regional Park, a stretch of farmland, woods and lakes on the outskirts of London where six applications for new data centers have been received. “Green space with trees and lakes? Or do we want a big, fancy data center?”
