Other locals complained datacentres were…noisy

Unless they’re walking inside the datacenter, I wouldn’t expect much by the way of noise.

In March, the technology secretary, Peter Kyle, attacked the “archaic planning processes” holding up the construction of technology infrastructure and complained that “the datacentres we need to power our digital economy get blocked because they ruin the view from the M25”.

While I agree that planning has been too much of a roadblock to development in many places, not just in the UK, I don’t think that it’s specific to building out tech infrastructure. I’d say that it’s an even more-substantial barrier in limiting housing construction.

www.centreforcities.org/housing/

The UK’s chronic housing shortage is one of the biggest economic and social challenges the country faces. The Government is aiming to build 1.5 million homes over the Parliament in England, but barely 200,000 were built in 2023-24.

England’s housing crisis is so severe as the planning system is especially restrictive. While other countries have rules-based zoning systems, England has a discretionary planning system where every decision is made case-by case. In most zoning systems proposals that follow the rule are accepted, while under discretion even projects that have been approved by planners can be rejected by councils.

The housing crisis varies substantially across the UK, with the worst shortages in the most economically successful cities and towns where employment opportunities draw in large numbers of people. These are caused by how our planning system disconnects the local supply of housing from local demand.