UK Government Slaps Down Green Call to Halt AI Data Centre Building

Key points

• Green party co-leader Zack Polanski called in 2025 for a moratorium, a full pause, on building large AI data centres in Britain.
• Labour's government rejected the proposal, saying it "would be a disaster for jobs and national security".
• Polanski described the facilities as "energy-guzzling, water-guzzling datacentres" that Britain should slam the brakes on.
• The Green proposal would allow only small, locally focused data centres to continue.
• The dispute puts energy use and economic growth on a direct collision course in British AI policy.

Britain is building. Enormous warehouse-sized data centres, the buildings crammed with specialised computers that run artificial intelligence services, are going up across the country. They drink power. They drink water, used to cool the machines inside. And now they are at the centre of a political fight.

Zack Polanski, co-leader of the Green party, wants it stopped. He called for a moratorium on large AI data centres, arguing the country should "slam the brakes on these energy-guzzling, water-guzzling datacentres". His proposal, first reported by The Guardian, would ban new large facilities but let small, community-scale ones continue.

What does Labour say?

Labour's government rejected the idea flat. A moratorium on large data centres, ministers said, "would be a disaster for jobs and national security".

The government's position is that AI infrastructure is not a luxury. Data centres house the computing power that runs everything from hospital appointment systems to financial fraud checks to the AI tools millions of people use every day. Pull the plug on new building, the argument goes, and Britain falls behind rivals who keep building.

Why does it take so much energy?

Running AI takes a surprising amount of electricity. Training an AI model, teaching it to recognise patterns by processing billions of examples, can consume as much power as hundreds of homes use in a year. Running the model afterwards, answering questions or generating images, adds up too. Water cools the servers, the specialised computers inside a data centre, to stop them overheating.

That is the Greens' core concern. Britain has legally binding climate targets, and a wave of power-hungry buildings strains the grid and the environment.

What does this mean for ordinary people?

Right now, nothing changes. This is a policy argument, not a decision. But the outcome will matter.

If Britain builds more data centres, AI services stay fast and relatively cheap for UK users, and tech investment and the jobs that come with it keep flowing in. If tighter rules slow construction, the cost of running AI services could rise, and companies might shift investment elsewhere.

For people who live near proposed data centre sites, the row is already real: noise, grid pressure, and water use are local issues, not abstract ones.

The fight between green targets and economic ambition is not going away. Both sides have a point, which is usually when the interesting policy actually gets made.

Common questions

What is a data centre?

A data centre is a large building full of specialised computers that store information and run online services, including AI tools. They need huge amounts of electricity and water to operate.

Would a moratorium affect AI tools people already use?

Not immediately. Existing data centres would keep running. A freeze would slow future capacity, which could affect performance and costs for AI services over time if demand keeps growing.