UK’s Data Centre Fast-Track Plan Sparks Alarms Over Environmental Fallout

The UK Government has opened an eight-week consultation on proposals to simplify the permit process for energy infrastructure, including data centres. Supporters argue that the changes could speed up approvals, while critics fear they may weaken environmental safeguards.

According to the consultation documents, Ministers want to introduce a new registration system for facilities considered “low risk.” This would apply to specific data centres and backup generators, allowing them to bypass the lengthy traditional process. Another idea under review is the use of flexible permits. Instead of regulating every process in detail, these permits would set a single emissions cap for an entire site.

Officials claim that the reforms could reduce waiting times from several months to just a few days, while also eliminating bureaucratic duplication. The consultation draws on international models, including those employed in the United States. However, rapid data centre growth in the US has been linked to severe water stress and local pollution. In some areas, expansion has left water supplies undrinkable.

There are also growing concerns about the energy-intensive operations of artificial intelligence, which rely on vast amounts of energy to power high-performance computing. Some US data centre operators have even turned to new coal and gas plants to meet their electricity needs. Critics warn that adopting a similar approach in the UK could undermine environmental due diligence. Coal generation officially ended in the UK in 2024, and the Government has committed to reducing the role of gas in the electricity mix to no more than five percent by 2030. Final decisions on the proposed reforms have not yet been announced.

The timing of this consultation is significant. It comes soon after Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner faced a legal challenge for overruling a local council to approve a hyperscale data centre on green belt land near the M25 in Buckinghamshire. Campaigners, including the tech equity group Foxglove and the environmental charity Global Action Plan, argue that the 90-megawatt project received approval without any environmental impact assessment.

Although the Buckinghamshire site is smaller than other planned projects, such as a facility in north Lincolnshire that is ten times larger and a metadata centre in Louisiana that is more than fifty times its size, campaigners believe it could still drive up local energy demand and electricity costs. Foxglove described the absence of an environmental assessment as “baffling.”

At the same time, the Government is moving ahead with a reclassification of some regions of the green belt. Land judged to be poor in terms of ecological or agricultural value will now be labelled “grey belt.” This category will cover spaces such as abandoned car parks and is part of a broader plan to deliver one and a half million new homes alongside 150 large infrastructure projects during the current Parliament.

These debates are unfolding against the backdrop of the UK’s ambition to become a global leader in artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled plans to position the country as an AI superpower. A central element of that vision is the creation of AI Growth Zones. These zones will be designed to expedite planning approvals and deliver the necessary energy connections to power the rapidly expanding sector.

Major technology companies have already pledged significant investment. Vantage Data Centres, Nscale, and Kyndryl together have committed more than £14 billion to new AI infrastructure projects. The investment is expected to create more than 13,000 jobs across the UK. Of these, 11,500 are tied to Vantage Data Centres’ £12 billion expansion in Wales, which will dramatically increase the nation’s data centre capacity.