AI firms tell UK it has 12 months to head off datacenter protests

The group said successive dry summers and rising energy bills are increasing public scrutiny of plans for the large computer warehouses used to train and run AI models. It called on ministers to create a “compact” that would show how communities can benefit from hosting datacenters, including allowing councils that host them to retain more tax revenues.

The intervention reflects concern among tech companies that arguments which have blocked datacenter developments in parts of the US are taking hold in Britain. Microsoft has promised to invest $30bn (£22bn) in UK AI infrastructure. It has built a datacenter in Acton, London, and another is under construction in Newport, but wants to build several more facilities and is engaging with local and national leaders, including the prime minister, Andy Burnham, over the balance between AI’s potential economic benefit and public opposition.

The SAIL group said: “In the United States, organised local opposition has stopped fully permitted datacentre projects, and moratoriums have been announced even in states that are otherwise pro-growth.” It added that reporting from those places showed AI itself was “only a surface-level concern” while distrust of corporate and government promises, fear of stranded assets and electricity costs ran deeper. “The same arguments have begun to appear here,” it said, adding that Britain had a window of roughly 12 months “to build a compact that earns public consent before that pattern takes hold.”

The taskforce called for a clear framework for councils and mayors setting out recommended terms for local benefit, including an indicative contribution, likely to be financial or in facilities, scaled to a site’s size. Steve Rigby, chair of the SAIL taskforce, said: “By establishing a clear prosperity compact between government, industry and local communities, we can build the infrastructure we need, equip our workforce with future-ready skills, and ensure Britain’s digital destiny.” The group has not calculated the cost to central government finances if councils that grant permission to datacenters are allowed to keep all of their business rates.

Opposition to datacenter construction is being fueled by wider public concern about the safety of AI systems after a summer in which some of the largest companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, appeared to lose control of some of their most cutting-edge AIs. Some protesters have begun resorting to direct action, and the membership of anti-AI campaign groups has been growing rapidly.

Joseph Miller, director of PauseAI UK, which campaigns for a global pause to datacenter buildout, said: “People are going to feel it is undignified to be bought off by huge tech companies who do not share their interests.” He said tech companies were “absolutely right to be worried” about US-style public opposition growing in the UK. Kat Jones, director of Action to Protect Rural Scotland, which campaigns against datacenters, said tech companies had already “missed the boat on containing community opposition to hyperscale AI datacentres,” citing 15 community campaigns in Scotland and a growing national campaign. Donald Campbell, director of advocacy at the tech equity campaign Foxglove, said big tech firms had spent years trying to force datacenters through the planning system under secrecy and misleading information, and warned that letting councils keep more business rate revenue would mean “these wealthy tech giants would not pay a penny more” while boosts to council funding would come from central government services such as the NHS.