The government has admitted its decision to force through the construction of a major new hyperscale data centre in England contained a “serious logical error” and should be “quashed”.
Last year, ministers overruled the decision of Buckinghamshire Council to reject the proposed new data centre at Woodlands Park in Buckinghamshire. Despite the huge energy consumption of hyperscale data centres, in the letter overruling the council’s decision, the government included just one paragraph addressing the potential power and environmental cost of the new facility.
In response to the Government’s decision, Foxglove and Global Action Plan launched the UK’s first legal challenge to a hyperscale data centre – focusing on the Government's failure to properly consider the energy use and environmental impact of the new data centre.
However, on Monday this week, the Government wrote to Foxglove and Global Action Plan to formally accept that its decision to grant permission for the data centre should be quashed. Lawyers for the Government admitted that they failed to put in place measures to ensure the developer Greystoke and the future operator would be held to the commitments they made on mitigating the data centre's climate impact.
This came prior to us bringing the decision to approve the data centre to a Planning Appeal at the High Court on Thursday 22 January 2026, in which the developer of the Woodlands data centre, Greystoke, elected to continue with presenting its legal argument despite the Government conceding that the decision was wrong.
At the hearing, Foxglove and Global Action Plan were successful on all grounds, meaning that we will have an opportunity to argue our case in a full trial.
Global Action Plan CEO Sonja Graham said:
“This embarrassing climb-down could have been avoided had the Government done its job and scrutinised Big Tech’s flimsy carbon commitments in the first place. Silicon Valley abandoned its green sheen the moment AI data centres started to proliferate, which makes it all the more remarkable our Government swallowed the AI Kool-Aid without a second thought for the impacts on people and planet.
“People across the UK are increasingly concerned about data centres’ proliferation and what it means for access to water and power. The government being asleep at the wheel like this will do nothing to reassure them. We urgently need tight, legally binding environmental standards for all new data centres, to ensure that Big Tech profits don’t come at the expense of escalating carbon emissions or household bills. Without them, the interests of communities across the UK will continue to be subordinate to those of the US tech billionaires.”
