Campaigners in east London are opposing plans for a datacentre in Brick Lane that they say will worsen the area’s housing crisis and drive long-term residents away. The road, famed for its curry houses and 24-hour bagel shops, is the latest flashpoint in the rapid rollout of datacentres across the UK that aims to meet demand created by artificial intelligence.
Proposed datacentre details
The Brick Lane datacentre, proposed to cover 5,200 sq metres, would be used for automated “high-frequency trading” in London’s nearby financial district. The planning documents show the datacentre’s peak output would be 5.2MW, enough to power about 15,000 homes, according to campaigners.
Jonathan Moberly, a resident and member of the Save Brick Lane campaign, said the new centre on the site of the former Truman Brewery would bring no benefit to the area or residents. “We have a severe housing crisis here and this site should be used to build affordable – ideally council – houses. Instead we are talking about this datacentre, which will bring literally no benefit to anyone living here,” he said.
Housing crisis vs datacentre expansion
A recent report by the London assembly found the rapid expansion of datacentres, which require huge amounts of energy, was delaying urgently needed housing in the capital as there is not enough capacity on the electricity grid for both. Moberly said: “It is quite clear we can’t have the housing we need and these datacentres – you have to make choices.”
Moberly added: “In some cases the government might say ‘oh you all want your Instagram feeds or TikTok so you need this’ but that is not the case with this proposal. The value of putting one here is for high-frequency trading because of its proximity to the City, where milliseconds count.”
Community concerns and council opposition
Campaigners are also concerned about noise pollution from the new site – a nearby datacentre has already been subject to complaints from residents for the persistent low-level hum that it emits, described as “like a huge fridge”. Tower Hamlets council rejected the proposals for the new Brick Lane centre last year. There was a public inquiry but Steve Reed, the housing secretary, called in the decision, meaning the government will now decide whether the development goes ahead. A government spokesperson said it would take the subsequent report from the public inquiry into account and that a decision would be made no later than 17 August.
Faysal Ahmed, a Tower Hamlets councillor for the area, said the community and council were united in opposing the plan. He said other parts of the borough, such as Canary Wharf, would be more suitable sites, arguing it “defies all logic to propose a datacentre on Brick Lane, in the middle of one of the most densely populated estates in the country”. He added: “We have 31,000 people on our waiting list for social housing and this new datacentre will do nothing to help those families.”
Broader implications
Ahmed, who is a cabinet member on the council, said the proposed datacentre would worsen the housing crisis, drive up housing costs and push long-term residents out. “There was a lack of knowledge about datacentres among some in the local community but as people have understood more about it they have overwhelmingly opposed it as threatening everything that makes the historic area of Brick Lane and Banglatown so special,” he said.
Brick Lane is just one of scores of datacentres being planned across the UK. In February, Ofgem said about 140 proposed datacentre schemes were in the pipeline and could require 50GW of electricity – 5GW more than the country’s current peak demand. Oliver Hayes, of the campaign group Global Action Plan, said: “Communities everywhere – from Tower Hamlets to Fife – are resisting datacentres that they fear will drive up bills and monopolise power and water. They feel that the only winners will be Silicon Valley billionaires, while people and the environment suffer.” He added: “The UK government should follow the example of a growing number of global cities and declare a moratorium on new AI datacentres until ministers can produces a credible, needs-based plan for how many of these we need, where and what for.”
