Call to Pull the Plug on Wales Data Centre Building

We call on The Senedd to impose an immediate moratorium on the construction of new data centres in Wales and to set out clear policy against the construction of such facilities.

England hosts hundreds of data centres, and is already facing competing interests over existing infrastructure. Wales has the powers to set down regulation which protects its residents from the parasitic facilities which wreak havoc on communities.

With a new Government who has promised the First Minister that devolved power will not be ignored, now is the time to resist centralised guidance and to protect the people in your community. This is what the public wants.

Scale of the issue

The UK government aims to become the third-largest provider of AI infrastructure in the world, with plans to build over 100 new data centres to supplement the more than 500 already in operation. These projects are being fast-tracked as “strategically important” under Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) designation.

The majority of data centres in Wales are built in and around Cardiff. We've seen a recent proposal, submitted to Cardiff Council, to replace a Cardiff Park and Ride with a massive data centre. The park and Ride provides free access to University Hospital of Wales for staff, patients, and visitors. Local activists have raised concerns about the data centre, but their concerns have so far not been taken seriously.

Impact on the housing crisis

The CNI designation allows data centres to jump the planning queue ahead of housing, hospitals, and industrial developments which communities need. We call on the government to prioritise building new homes for Welsh people rather than data centres for unsustainable AI models.

While industry giants are able to jump past the Senedd to central government for planning approval, utilising the CNI designation, the Welsh Government still hold the power to enforce a moratorium on any facilities below this threshold. Amidst a housing crisis, we call for land to be used for social and affordable housing, not unsustainable data centres.

The environment

Data centres are profoundly environmentally damaging. They demand huge amounts of electricity and temporarily non-renewable water. A study suggests a 1-megawatt data centre uses enough electricity to power 1000 houses and 25.5 million litres of water. Projections suggest that, by 2030, global data centres will use more electricity than the entirety of Japan.

Cost of living

New data centres grow the demand on our electricity and water supplies. Data centres force expensive electricity grid upgrades and improvements to water systems, all of which are paid for by the public. The costs of data centres are nationalised, the rewards privatised.

Data centres force expensive grid upgrades, as we've seen in London, and the consumer often foots the bill. AI drastically increases energy and water demand, which means it costs more for other uses. The costs of data centres are nationalised, the rewards privatised.

We urge The Senedd to reconsider their priorities.

Data centres do not build homes. They do not staff hospitals. They create a relentless demand on the energy grid and on water supplies. The government should prioritise the needs of people over Big Tech and pause the building of London data centres.