Whitehall wants to triple UK datacentres by 2030 but water forecasts “fatally flawed” — some facilities use 5m gallons of water per day during drought.
Datacentres vs Homes: AI Boom Strains UK Water and Housing
Slough hosts western Europe’s densest datacentre cluster (40 sites). Residents report noise, heat, and water concerns. Angela Rayner just approved a London redevelopment with a datacentre and only 44 homes — the council wanted 350. Water UK says government forecasts “explicitly exclude” datacentre consumption.
Why it matters:(AI) AI’s physical footprint is competing with homes and water supply in Britain. The “homes or servers” trade-off is becoming a live political question — with datacentres classed as critical national infrastructure.
data centres can be cooled in innovative ways and this could reduce the competition. List method that data centres can take to do this here