Government admits to “serious error” as permission granted for legal case opposing hyperscale data centre in Buckinghamshire

The concession came ahead of a High Court permission hearing last week for a judicial review claim brought by non-profit Foxglove and environment charity Global Action Plan contesting the decision to approve the data centre - located in Woodlands Park in Iver.

Following the hearing, permission was granted for the claim, after the data centre’s developer continued to contest it.

In a legal letter, the government admitted it was wrong to approve construction without receiving commitments from the developer on how it would reduce the data centre’s environmental impact.

The decision to approve the 90-megawatt facility was made by former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner in 2024. This overruled Buckinghamshire Council’s decision to reject the development due to its environmental impact and location, with the proposed construction site located in the Buckinghamshire green belt.

In August 2025, Foxglove and Global Action Plan launched a legal challenge contesting the Deputy PM’s decision, arguing that it ignored the vast electricity demands of the data centre, and failed to adequately consider its climate impact.

The two groups, represented by law firm Leigh Day, said that the amount of power required by the hyperscale data centre could trap decades of high resource use, undermining net zero goals for the UK.

With a court date for a permission hearing due on 22 January 2026, the government wrote to Foxglove and Global Action Plan on Monday 19 January accepting a “serious logical error” in making its decision, and that approval for the data centre should be quashed.

The government acknowledged that it was wrong to rule that the development did not require an Environmental Impact Assessment, with the project posing significant environmental risks.

Despite the government’s concession, developer Greystoke pressed ahead with presenting its legal argument in the High Court, meaning the permission hearing still took place on 22 January. Permission for the claim to be brought on all grounds was granted at the end of the hearing.

Foxglove co-executive director Rosa Curling said:

“It shouldn’t take us having to drag the government to court for them to admit their decision to back Big Tech’s polluting data centres was fundamentally wrong.

“For too long, ministers have been putting the profits of Trump-supporting tech billionaires ahead of the interests of the British public. Nowhere has this been clearer than their willingness to force through massive data centres against the wishes of the local community, without a thought for the catastrophic damage they will cause to our environment.

“We’re encouraged that the government now appears to recognise that blindly accepting tech companies’ magical promises about the impact of their data centres on our environment isn’t good enough. Instead, there need to be strict legal restrictions with teeth, and a mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment for each new data centre as a starting point.”

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.”

Leigh Day solicitor Rowan Smith, who represents Foxglove and Global Action Plan, said:

“The concession by the government is a welcome one, accepting our clients’ argument that the environmental impacts of the proposed Woodlands Park data centre should have been properly assessed before the decision to approve it. This has been further backed up by the court’s decision to grant permission for the claim. Data centres invariably consume large amounts of resources, including energy, all with a climate impact. Our clients, Foxglove and Global Action Plan, say that these impacts must be assessed before a planning decision is made, a position that the government has now acknowledged to be correct.”