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The Government must "slam the brakes" on new data centres or put communities at risk of water shortages, the Green Party leader has said.
Zack Polanski has demanded planning rules be tightened to prevent data centres being given priority while people come a "poor second".
Data centres have been treated as critical infrastructure since 2024, putting them on equal footing to water, energy and emergency services systems, making gaining planning permission easier.
The Government said the move was necessary because they are "critical to nearly all economic activity and public services".
Now the Greens are calling for that to be reversed, arguing data centres consume significant amounts of water at a time when large parts of the UK have been in drought.
Deputy Leader of the Green Party Rachel Millward joins Tom Swarbrick to discuss the Slough data centre, where she claims surrounding temperatures have risen 9 degrees. She warns that if we are not careful, we could reverse the progress we've made on climate change and start heading towards "water bankruptcy".
Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp
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0:00
When it comes to water and resource, one of the areas that use quite a lot of water, we're told, are these data centres
0:04
Should we be building data centres with the same vim and vigour that we want to build social housing
0:09
Well, we do need more data centres. We've ensured that through changes to national planning policy, they're given the appropriate prioritisation
0:17
People hate them, Mr Pennycook. They absolutely loathe them. Well, but people and businesses also rely on their output
0:24
So we've got to have the right amount. We've got a world-class AI sector
0:29
we need to support it. The planning minister there speaking to me earlier this week talking about the necessary building of data centres. Infrastructure now determined to be quotes
0:38
critical which puts it on a par with water, with energy, with emergency systems. There are about
0:44
500 data centres but another 100 or so, nearly 200 or so in the planning process and the government
0:52
is determined that we should build them not least because they say we need them. A government
0:57
spokesperson saying that building new data centres gets investment and good jobs. It would, not having
1:03
them, leave Britain dependent on overseas computing for the processing of sensitive health and defence
1:08
data, that not having these enormous buildings would be a disaster for jobs and national security
1:16
But certainly in America, there is now a huge political row about the building of these data
1:22
centres, dividing all kinds of different ways across political lines, actually. Republicans
1:28
not particularly happy about it. Democrats neither. From one view, it is the environmental
1:33
impact of these things, the amount of water, the amount of energy they're taking up. From the other
1:37
there's a worry about the use of AI and the devolving of decisions to tech. But we are heading
1:45
rapidly down that route, if not there already. So are these data centres sometimes bigger than two
1:51
football pitches in one place in Scotland where one is planned is actually bigger than the village it is being built next to. Are they a source of good jobs? Are they a source of national security
2:01
Do we need them? Rachel Millwood is the deputy leader of the Green Party. Thank you very much
2:06
indeed for coming on the programme Why do you seek a ban Morning Morning So we seeking a putting on of the brakes rather than an outright ban It really important we take a pause now and assess what happening Because as you said there are hundreds of vast scale data centres that are being prioritised
2:24
They're being declared critical infrastructure. The beneficiary is in fact often US big tech giants over our citizens
2:33
So, of course, we do now need AI built into some of our critical infrastructure
2:39
but that isn't, of course, the entire use. What we're having is the impact on communities
2:43
where temperatures are rising near these data centres, that noise is crazy
2:47
and they're getting priority access to water and energy over households, over local economy, over public services
2:53
even over food production, which is not what people want. So we want there to be a pause
2:59
We want to stop this kind of blanket designation as critical infrastructure
3:03
It can be done in a more smart way so that you can differentiate where, in fact
3:08
the data centres are being used for critical infrastructure, where it's other uses of AI that we all know are not critical
3:15
making sure those environmental standards are really high, making sure we have accurate data and public scrutiny
3:21
on things like water use and energy use, because otherwise we could be reversing a lot of the progress
3:25
that we've made when it comes to climate. We want AI sovereignty for the future in a sustainable way
3:31
that works for our citizens and our communities. Otherwise, what's the point
3:36
This is such an obvious question to ask, Rachel, but I feel like I..
3:42
What do data centres actually do? Well, it's all the flow of information, isn't it, that goes through the data centres
3:52
And just so much of our compute life kind of ends up flowing through them
4:00
What's really interesting is they can be designed differently in the way that they're architected
4:05
the way that chips are designed. It doesn't have to be the model that NVIDIA, OpenAI
4:09
these kind of big American companies use. That's very energy intensive, that actually they have to be kind of restacked every three years
4:17
It's not sustainable. There are other methods that are being developed. We need to be prioritising those
4:21
What we should be being ambitious for as a country is developing a kind of regenerative tech infrastructure that will actually serve us into the future What is that Sorry what is regenerative tech Regenerative tech is thinking about it asking the question how can this tech be as sustainable
4:40
as possible, as smart and effective and efficient as possible? So there are different ways of
4:46
producing semiconductors. There are different ways of designing this tech in its absolute detail
4:53
that allows it to be more efficient, that allows it to be more sustainable
4:58
Of course, we need to think carefully about where data centers are placed, the scale of them
5:02
what is an acceptable environmental impact, how we can mitigate any impact that there is
5:07
It's not just like, oh, this is a race, we must be the biggest, because it's at what cost
5:13
Because if we must be the biggest while we head into water bankruptcy, then that's a race I'm not sure we want to win
5:18
And, you know, what we want to do is have the smartest, most sustainable model and ask the right questions
5:24
And that might mean, and we think it does mean, taking a pause right now, making sure we're getting accurate data available to the public
5:32
At the moment, that data isn't there at all. Well, it's interesting because you talk about the effects on local residents of having these things around
5:41
And you said that the temperatures are rising around those areas. It's crazy
5:46
So in Slough, there's reported temperatures as high as nine degrees higher, really close to the data centre
5:52
but a couple of degrees higher in the surrounding area if you're living there. Now, look, we've just had extreme heat sustained over weeks and weeks, haven't we
6:00
It's incredibly difficult to keep our productivity up. It has a massive impact on our communities
6:06
And the idea of data centres making that more difficult for the communities in the area is really serious
6:11
So that's amazing. So in Slough, around the data centre, it's nine degrees warmer than the rest of the town
6:19
That's the highest raise that's been reported, and that's very close to data centre
6:24
It's anything between two degrees higher and nine degrees higher is the extreme
6:28
But even two degrees higher, if you're already struggling with kind of 35 plus in a heat wave
6:33
that two degrees makes a massive difference. It's just deeply unpleasant. There's also continuous noise
6:37
People are talking about constant high-pitched noise. That's very distressing. You know this has to work for citizens Else what the point So we need to get that right And other countries are looking at different ways of placing them different ways of making sure they using renewables much more i
6:54
mean you know we're now having nvidia say they have to have separate gas hookups for their data
6:59
centers that's a massive carbon cost i mean that's enormous um and all the other efforts that we're
7:05
going to um in this climate emergency you know become a bit ridiculous in the face of that um
7:10
So if you're living near a data centre, I mean, I'm just trying to imagine this
7:15
It's not the car park for it or whatever. Not that there'll be many people parking their cars
7:19
because I gather there aren't that many people that work in these things. But if you're at the car park from it, you can hear a sort of thrumming noise
7:26
and it's nine degrees warmer. Well, I mean, there's plenty of videos out there with people saying
7:35
even in their back gardens, if you've got the data centre, it's kind of roughly within sight because they're vast, as you say
7:41
you can just hear this noise all the time. I mean, that is quite distressing
7:46
There's other ways it affects the economy. I was actually visiting a film studios in London recently
7:51
and they said there's a data centre coming right nearby, and it's a struggle for them to get enough power to run the studios
7:58
because the data centre just is so greedy for power. So there's a huge economic impact as well
8:03
We just need to look at this properly, make the proper assessments, have scrutiny, have available data and make sensible decisions
8:13
Might be an irony that the data that you need comes from a data centre. Look, I'm not suggesting we can switch off AI right now, but we have an exponential growth in
8:25
that tech. And we also have a climate emergency, which is upon us and which is serious, which is
8:32
affecting our national security. So people say, oh, we need AI for national security. I'm like
8:35
yeah, and if you lead us into water bankruptcy, you're going to find that the geopolitical situation
8:41
is dramatically less safe. So we just cannot keep our heads in the sand on this
8:46
We have to address it. And as I say, there really are ways
8:51
of doing the tech differently so that we are developing a regenerative version
8:55
That's what we need to focus on as a country. Appreciate your time. Rachel Millwood is deputy leader of the Green Party
9:00
calling for a temporary pause on the building of these things until they figure out, to use Donald Trump's words
9:04
what the hell is going on
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