Proposed London datacentres face intense local opposition over massive carbon footprints and land-use conflicts. In East Havering, Digital Reef's proposed £14.7 billion campus would occupy 218 hectares of green belt and emit 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, violating net-zero pathways. Meanwhile, plans for datacentres in Brick Lane and Charlton Riverside clash with local housing initiatives, highlighting severe grid capacity constraints as developers request 72.8GW of connections by 2039.
East Havering datacentre carbon emissions
- ▪Digital Reef estimates a cash-in-lieu payment of approximately £77.6 million to the borough of Havering's carbon offset fund to compensate for on-site zero-carbon shortfalls.
- ▪By 2038, the operational emissions of the East Havering Data Centre Campus are projected to consume almost 1% of the UK's entire carbon budget.
- ▪Developer Digital Reef acknowledged in planning documents that the £14.7 billion East Havering Data Centre Campus project does not align with achieving net zero by 2050.
- ▪The proposed East Havering Data Centre Campus in North Ockendon would generate an estimated 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually once fully operational.
- ▪The East Havering Data Centre Campus is projected to generate over 72 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over its estimated 60-year lifespan.
National Grid electricity capacity upgrades
- ▪Powering the East Havering Data Centre Campus requires a new 400kV National Grid substation and a new 132kV UK Power Networks facility, with full connection expected by 2033.
- ▪Britain's grid operator, Neso, reported that datacentre developers have requested 72.8GW of electricity connections by 2039, nearly 60% more than the UK's peak power demand in 2024.
- ▪At a projected 50% load, the East Havering Data Centre Campus would consume 2.65 billion kWh of electricity annually, equivalent to the demand of over 1 million UK households.
Green belt farmland development
- ▪The proposed Charlton Riverside data centre by Tyburn RWC Limited clashes with plans by Greenwich Council, Transport for London, and the mayor's office to build 8,000 homes.
- ▪Tyburn RWC Limited proposed a 100,000 square meter data development at Charlton Riverside that would demolish three locally listed buildings on the Stone Foundries site.
- ▪The North Ockendon Residents Association opposed the East Havering Data Centre Campus, calling the development on crop-producing farmland a massacre of green belt land.
- ▪The proposed East Havering Data Centre Campus would occupy 218 hectares of green belt land in North Ockendon to run servers and data storage systems.
Brick Lane housing versus servers
- ▪The proposed Brick Lane datacentre would serve high-frequency trading with a peak output of 5.2MW, which campaigners say is enough to power about 15,000 homes.
- ▪Tower Hamlets council rejected the Brick Lane datacentre scheme in 2025, and the UK government is scheduled to rule on the called-in decision by August 17, 2026.
- ▪Residents and the Save Brick Lane campaign oppose a planned 5,200 square meter datacentre at the old Truman Brewery site, arguing the land should be used for affordable housing.
- ▪A London Assembly report found that the rapid spread of datacentres delays housing development because the electricity grid cannot power both simultaneously.
UK climate targets conflict
- ▪Oliver Hayes of the campaign group Global Action Plan called for a moratorium on new AI datacentres until ministers demonstrate how many are needed and where.
- ▪In January 2026, UK planning legislation was amended to allow datacentre developers to apply as nationally significant infrastructure projects, bypassing local authority planning procedures.
- ▪In early 2025, the UK government estimated datacentres consumed 2.5% of the UK's electricity and predicted this demand would increase fourfold by 2030.
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