As Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz has many issues to tackle. Her London borough is struggling with entrenched poverty and highest rate of residents stuck in temporary housing. But halfway through his second term, Fiaz has a new plan to turn things around. He believes AI could provide a multi-billion pound boost to economic growth and is campaigning for Newham to get a share. “We want to be able to take advantage of the opportunities of the data economy,” he says, “and data centres are a critical part of that.”
Fiaz’s support for server farms reflects the enthusiasm of a new generation of Labour politicians hoping to be voted into power in U.K. elections later this week. After 14 years of center-right Conservative rule, polls predict voters will back the center-left Labour Party’s promises to boost economic growth and harness the potential of AI, in part by making it easier to build startups. More data centers across the country.
Last month, Newham approved the country’s last data centre, on an industrial site overlooking the River Thames. The plan was welcomed by some residents, who had campaigned fiercely against the construction of a new data centre. New truck depot destined for the same site. “Everyone breathed a sigh of relief,” says Sam Parsons of the Royal Wharf Residents AssociationThis represents 1,600 people living in a nearby housing complex. But Parsons remains concerned, particularly about the noise the data centre could make once construction is complete. “There’s one place in the US where residents had a hard time with this hum,” he says, referring to reports Last year, in Virginia, the project moved to Newham. On a Thursday morning, the few people who spoke to WIRED as they passed London City Hall, near the data center site, said they knew nothing of the plans. Most local residents seemed uninterested in the impact the 210-megawatt infrastructure would have on the already heavily built-up area, but one resident, Paul, who declined to give his last name, summed up the general sentiment: “We have no need for it,” he says.
If Labour is elected to power this week, ministers will have to convince people across the UK who are already… Europe’s largest data center marketwhy they need even more and decide where to put them.
Discontent is growing across the country and the opposition… particularly strong in areas known as the “green belt,” strips of countryside designated to prevent urban sprawl. Labor is well aware that the party’s plan to make it easier to build data centers risks sparking conflict between developers and locals, according to two people with knowledge of internal party discussions. Amsterdam, Frankfurtand Dublin All three cities have clashed with data center developers, complaining about the buildings’ insatiable appetite for electricity and water. All three cities have since imposed restrictions on new development.
“The question for national politicians, not us poor people, is: what does the country value most?” says Jane Griffin, spokeswoman for Colne Valley Regional Park, a tract of farmland, woodland and lakes outside London where six applications have been submitted to build new data centres. “Green spaces with trees and lakes? Or do we want one big, massive data centre?”
