Campaigners in east London are opposing plans for a datacentre in Brick Lane, a road famed for its curry houses and 24-hour bagel shops, arguing that the development will worsen the area’s housing crisis and drive long-term residents away. The proposed datacentre, covering 5,200 square metres, would be used for automated high-frequency trading in London’s nearby financial district.
Residents and Council United Against the Plan
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 its 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.
A recent report by the London Assembly found that the rapid expansion of datacentres, which require huge amounts of energy, was delaying urgently needed housing in the capital because there is not enough capacity on the electricity grid for both. Moberly added: “It is quite clear we can’t have the housing we need and these datacentres – you have to make choices.”
High-Frequency Trading and Energy Demands
Planning documents submitted for the datacentre show it will be mainly used for high-frequency trading, allowing a huge volume of financial transactions in the City of London to take place within a fraction of a second. The proposals indicate the datacentre’s peak output would be 5.2 MW, enough to power about 15,000 homes, according to campaigners. Moberly said: “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.”
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 it emits, described as “like a huge fridge”.
Government to Decide by August 17
Tower Hamlets Council rejected the proposals for the new Brick Lane centre last year. There was a public inquiry, but Housing Secretary Steve Reed 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. The Truman Brewery company, which is proposing the scheme, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Faysal Ahmed, a Tower Hamlets councillor for the area, said the community and council were united in opposing the plan. He argued that other parts of the borough, such as Canary Wharf, would be more suitable sites, stating 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.” 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.
Broader Context: Datacentre Boom Across the UK
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 50 GW of electricity – 5 GW 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 produce a credible, needs-based plan for how many of these we need, where and what for.” The Scottish government is considering a sweeping moratorium on building new datacentres, as reported by the Guardian on Tuesday.
