Local authorities initially rejected the proposal to build the data center on a field across the road, but following recent political shifts, the project has been given another chance under British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government. His administration is pushing for economic growth initiatives after a successful Labour Party election in July.
Residents are deeply concerned that the data center will strain local resources and generate noise and traffic that could compromise the village’s peaceful character. Abbots Langley, with a population of just over 20,000, boasts a quaint charm highlighted by a 12th-century stone tower church and picturesque thatched-roof cottages, reminiscent of a model farm once created for Queen Marie Antoinette.
Seventy-year-old Stewart Lewis, a resident living in one of the converted homes within the historic barn, expressed his dismay, stating, “It’s incredibly unfair. I think any reasonable person would say, ‘Stop, they want to put a data center here? There’s no place for that.’”
As demand for cloud-based computing grows rapidly, driven by artificial intelligence, such development projects are increasingly pitting commercial interests against local concerns. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has taken steps to review appeals filed by developers of three data center projects that were previously rejected by local officials, removing the decision from city planners’ hands. Among these proposals is the Abbots Langley data center and two others located in Buckinghamshire, west of London, with a decision expected by January.
The contentious proposals involve constructing data centers on designated “greenbelt” land, typically reserved to prevent urban sprawl. Rayner argues that much of this land is of low quality and should be repurposed. For instance, one proposal in Buckinghamshire seeks to redevelop an industrial park adjacent to a busy highway.
“Although it’s officially designated greenbelt land, there’s nothing ‘green’ about the site today,” remarked Stephen Beard, global head of data centers at property consultancy Knight Frank, which is involved in the project. He described the proposed site as “an eyesore that is very prominent from the M25 motorway.”
The company behind the Abbots Langley project, Greystoke, did not respond to requests for comment. However, a company representative in an online video asserted, “We’ve conducted extensive searches for sites, and this is the best one,” without specifying which companies might utilize the center.
The British government is positioning data centers as a cornerstone of its economic development plans, deeming them “critical national infrastructure” to instill confidence in businesses for investment. Starmer has announced deals for new centers, including a £10 billion ($13 billion) investment from private equity firm Blackstone to create Europe’s largest AI data center in northeast England.
Currently, the proposed data center site is used for grazing horses and is surrounded by affordable housing groups and a highway. The plan to construct two large buildings, totaling 84,000 square meters (904,000 square feet) and rising up to 20 meters (66 feet), has alarmed Lewis and other villagers who fear it would overshadow everything around it.
Skepticism also lingers regarding Greystoke’s promise to create 260 jobs. Jennifer Stirp, a 51-year-old tech consultant in the area, said, “Everything will be automated, so they won’t need people.”
Not everyone in the village opposes the project. Retired resident Brian Power believes the data center could benefit the area similarly to a major project across the village, the Warner Bros. studio tour featuring the Harry Potter exhibition. “It’ll bring some jobs, whatever happens. It will be good. Yes. No problem. Because if it doesn’t come here, it will go somewhere else,” Power, 56, said.
One of the primary concerns surrounding data centers is their environmental impact, particularly the significant amount of electricity they require. Greystoke claims the facility will draw 96 megawatts of “IT load.” However, James Felstead, a renewable energy company director and neighbor to Lewis, raised alarms about the local power grid’s capacity to handle such increased demand.
This issue is reflective of a broader challenge seen across Europe, where the demand for power from data centers is expected to triple by the end of the decade. While the AI-driven data boom has prompted companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft to consider nuclear energy as a clean power source, concerns over their ecological footprint have already created tensions surrounding data centers in various locales.
In September, Google was compelled to halt plans for a $200 million data center in Santiago, Chile, after community complaints regarding water and energy use. Similarly, in Ireland, grid operators temporarily suspended new data centers around Dublin until 2028 due to concerns over excessive energy consumption.
In Northern Virginia, a massive data center project received only a narrow county approval amid significant public opposition over environmental impacts last year. Other cities, like Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Singapore, have imposed various restrictions on data centers.
Despite a general lack of public knowledge about the industry, “people are now realizing that these data centers are quite problematic,” said Sebastian Lehuede, a lecturer on ethics, AI, and society at King’s College London, who studied the Google case in Chile. As awareness of their environmental impact grows, Lehuede predicts, “I’m sure we’ll face more opposition from different communities.”
