Microsoft expects to submit plans for a new data centre in Slough this autumn, amid local resistance to the project – and to a much larger one the company is developing near Leeds.
The chosen site, the former Langley Business Centre near Langley and Windsor College and Langley Railway Station, has been vacant since December 2023.
Slough Borough Council previously approved outline plans for a data centre at the site in 2021, but the application has since lapsed, and Microsoft is looking to submit its plans for an alternative project there in the coming weeks, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.
The company held a consultation with local residents on Saturday, 12 September, at the Langley Community Centre, arguing in consultation documents that “the UK needs more new data centres”, adding that they are necessary for “social media, contactless payments and remote working”, without mentioning the power- and compute-intensive AI tools that are largely driving the current wave of data centre expansion.
It said the building would stand 15 metres high, similar to a six-storey office building, would include on-site parking, and that an environmental assessment is being carried out to look at air quality, noise, climate, townscape, and daylight and sunlight effects.
Councillor Chandra Muvvala, who attended the consultation, expressed scepticism, telling the LDRS, “Not having a data centre is not a problem, but having a data centre is certainly a problem.”
A petition by local residents, with 600 signatures so far, is asking the council to pause new data centre developments in the town, including Microsoft’s, and is asking for independent assessment of the impacts of such projects ahead of their approval.
In Scotland, ministers said this week that new and existing data centres would be subject to an environmental impact assessment, which the Scottish Greens described as “the bare minimum of what is needed”.
In Leeds, more than 42,000 people have signed a petition against an expansive 424,000 square foot data centre complex Microsoft is developing on the site of a former power station, amid broader concern over the rapid expansion of such facilities to power AI services and the effects on local communities resulting from noise, vibration, and power and water usage.
Microsoft has sought this year to portray its data centre developments in a positive light, but also recently challenged a Virginia state action to force it to pay up-front for the construction of new power infrastructure, a cost that could otherwise be paid for by local residents.