£1bn datacentre plans on hold after government admits legal blunder

Iver scheme should have been required to carry out an environmental impact assessment before permission granted

The construction of a £1 billion datacentre in Iver, Buckinghamshire, have been put on hold after the government admitted it had made a critical error in granting planning permission.

The plans for a 72,000 square metre datacentre complex on a former landfill site on greenbelt land were opposed by local residents and campaigners, with campaign groups Foxglove and Global Action Plan mounting a legal challenge against them on environmental grounds.

In a hearing in the High Court on Thursday, legal representatives for the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government (DHCLG) admitted that officials should have demanded a proper environmental impact assessment (EIA) before granting planning permission in 2024 and conceded the permission should be withdrawn. Judge Sir Peter Lane gave permission for campaigners’ claim to proceed.

Applications by developer Greystoke Land together with Altrad UK for a datacentre at the site had been repeatedly rejected by Buckinghamshire Council, but in 2024 then-deputy prime minister Angela Rayner “called in” the Iver plan, removing the decision from the local planning authorities and handing it to the planning inspectorate.

The inspectors decided that the datacentre project did not require an EIA, since the developers had assured officials they’d mitigate the environmental impact through the use of low carbon energy and other measures.

That decision was at the heart of the legal challenge by Foxglove and Global Action Plan who said officials had failed to properly assess its energy use, carbon emissions, and environmental impact, particularly regarding water and electricity.

Following the DHGLG’s admission, the case will now proceed to a full hearing in what will be an important test for the government’s prioritisation of datacentre construction as part of its plan for AI-driven economic growth.

It highlights the tension between the government’s AI action plan, which aims to ensure the UK is ahead of the game in AI, the impact on natural resources, and the concerns of local populations. It will also embolden groups campaigning against the construction of other datacentres on greenbelt land.

Sonja Graham, the CEO of Global Action Plan, commented: “People across the UK are increasingly concerned about datacentres’ 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.”

Rosa Curling, Foxglove co-executive director, 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.”

She added: “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.”

Acting for Greystoke Land, barrister Jonathan Welch argued that the claim should be thrown out.

A full legal challenge will be heard at a later date.