Stop Unregulated Data Centres on Our Green Belt
Angela Rayner
Angela Rayner, controversially overruled a local council to approve a hyperscale datacentre on green belt land. No environmental impact assessment was done. This is part of the Labour government’s unregulated push to make the UK into an AI powerhouse. The energy industry has estimated the rapid adoption of AI could mean datacentres will account for a 10th of electricity demand in Great Britain by 2050, five to 10 times more than today.
Data Centres were officially designated as Critical National Infrastructure giving ministers planning veto power to override local concerns.
Huge data centres are being built on our green belt land without proper legislation or environmental protections. These developments threaten local ecosystems, put our water supplies at risk, drive up electricity costs for households, and pave the way for unchecked industrialisation of our countryside. This is a national problem: the UK urgently needs clear rules to regulate data centre expansion before it’s too late.
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To:
Angela Rayner
From:
[Your Name]
We, the undersigned, call on the UK Government and local authorities to:
Pause approval of new data centres on green belt or sensitive land until proper legislation is in place.
What’s at stake:
Water stress: Data centres consume vast amounts of water for cooling. In areas already facing shortages, this is unsustainable.
Energy use and bills: These facilities demand huge amounts of electricity, placing pressure on the grid and contributing to rising household bills.
Green belt protection: Building on protected land undermines both climate commitments and the promise to safeguard nature.
Lack of regulation: The UK has no clear legislative framework to manage or limit data centre developments — unlike other countries that have introduced safeguards.
The government must:
Introduce national regulations - to assess and limit the environmental impact of data centres, including water, energy, and carbon use and continue follow and use existing environmental impact assessments.
Protect communities from rising costs - by ensuring data centre electricity and water demands do not drive up household bills.
Mandatory sustainability reporting – enforce transparent ESG (environmental, social and governance) metrics for energy, water, land use and e-waste.
Tightened planning controls – restrict builds in water-stressed, green belt, or biodiversity-rich areas.
Tech-phase out dark data – promote data hygiene to reduce unnecessary storage.
Re-use heat & water – turn waste heat into district heating and deploy water-efficient or air/liquid cooling.