Angela Rayner Faces Legal Challenge Over Green Belt Datacentre Approval

Published: 21 August ‘2025. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner is confronting a legal challenge after overruling a local council to approve a hyperscale datacentre on green belt land adjacent to the M25 in Buckinghamshire. The decision has sparked controversy among environmentalists and local campaigners, who argue that no environmental impact assessment was conducted for the 90MW facility, despite concerns over its potential ecological and societal effects.

The datacentre is part of the Labour government’s strategy to establish the UK as a global leader in artificial intelligence by tripling the country’s computing capacity to meet escalating demand. While modest in scale compared with a proposed site in north Lincolnshire, which is expected to be roughly ten times larger, and dwarfed by a Meta project in Louisiana aimed at digital “superintelligence,” the Iver facility has nonetheless raised alarm among environmental campaigners.

Foxglove, a tech equity advocacy group, has joined forces with the environmental charity Global Action Plan to contest Rayner’s decision in court. They contend that the datacentre’s energy requirements could drive up local electricity costs and criticized the absence of an environmental assessment. Oliver Hayes, head of campaigns at Global Action Plan, highlighted the broader implications, questioning whether the societal benefits of AI-driven technologies such as chatbots and deepfakes justify the environmental trade-offs. He urged the government to reconsider the approval to avoid a potential judicial rebuke.

The controversy stems from a prior refusal by Buckinghamshire council in June to grant planning permission for the Iver site, which is situated on former landfill land. The council cited concerns over inappropriate development in the green belt, potential harm to local air quality, protected habitats, and the visual landscape. Local residents echoed these worries, describing the proposed buildings, each rising to 18 metres, as intrusive and out of scale with the surrounding area. Critics also argued that datacentres bring limited employment opportunities, although Greystoke, the company behind the project, projects around 230 direct jobs and hundreds more indirectly across the local economy.

Following an appeal against the council’s refusal, a public inquiry concluded that no environmental impact assessment was necessary, clearing the way for Rayner’s approval last month. Observers have framed the decision as part of the government’s pro-development “grey belt” policy, which targets areas of green belt considered to have lower environmental significance.

Campaigners have raised concerns that the datacentre could exacerbate local energy competition. Rosa Curling, co-executive director of Foxglove, warned that Buckinghamshire residents and businesses could face steep electricity costs, drawing parallels with high energy consumption seen at large datacentres in the United States. Energy analysts estimate that as AI adoption accelerates, datacentres may account for up to 10 percent of Britain’s electricity demand by 2050, a five- to tenfold increase on current levels. While the Iver facility is expected to rely on air-cooling, many similar projects consume vast quantities of water. Thames Water recently highlighted that its region is “seriously water-stressed,” with the potential for as many as 70 new datacentres over the next few years, each potentially drawing water equivalent to 24,000 homes’ usage per second.

In response to the legal challenge, a spokesperson for Greystoke defended the deputy prime minister’s decision, emphasizing the national significance of the project. The company argued that the datacentre would attract over £1 billion in investment, transform a former landfill site, and contribute to scientific research, medical diagnostics, and sustainable energy. Measures such as solar panels, heat pumps, and modern building standards were highlighted as steps taken to mitigate environmental impacts.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government has declined to comment on the pending legal action, leaving the future of the Iver datacentre uncertain as the dispute moves through the courts.