Angela Rayner approves Iver data centre that 'will materially alter' area's character

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has overruled Buckinghamshire Council and given the green light to a sprawling ‘hyperscale’ data centre complex in Iver.

A decision notice on the plans said the economic need for the data centre trumped a loss of greenbelt land which would cause a ‘material’ change to part of a country park.

Mrs Rayner’s decision brings an end to a four-year long planning battle between developers Greystoke Land Ltd, Altard UK Limited and Buckinghamshire Council.

The council refused the developer’s bid for a larger data centre in 2021, citing inappropriate development in the greenbelt, and won an appeal to the government Planning Inspectorate. But a renewed application, lodged in 2024 and also refused by the council, was ‘called in’ by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government [MHCLG), giving Mrs Rayner the final say.

Developers Greystoke and Altard’s plans are for two ‘hyperscale’’ data centres across an area 72,000 sqm large, on Woodlands Park Landfill Site next to the M25 in Iver.

Hyperscale data centres are the largest and the most powerful facilities capable of processing and storing huge amounts of computer data.

A design and access statement on behalf of the plans, known as the West London Technology Park, said it would be ‘a critical facility that supports national infrastructure’.

The region near Slough was ‘most active market in Europe’ for data centres, it said, and was ‘historically positioned’ to make use of good power connections and fibre-cables.

Buckinghamshire Council, though, argued there were no ‘very special circumstances’ to approve the data centre plans in its 2024 refusal.

“The proposed development would constitute inappropriate development in the greenbelt,” the council said in its ruling.

It added that there would be ‘harm to the openness of the greenbelt in both spatial and visual terms’ and ‘conflict with the purposes of including land within the greenbelt’.

Woodlands Park Landfill Site sits within a section of the Colne Valley Regional Park, a protected space stretching from the eastern edge of Slough to West Drayton.

It is described on its website as ‘the first substantial taste of countryside to the west of London’.

Mrs Rayner’s decision notice acknowledged ‘the proposal would have a significant adverse landscape and visual effect and she gives this harm significant weight’.

It said, ‘the development and its associated features including car parking and substation would materially alter the character of this part of the Colne Valley Regional Park’.

But added that, ‘despite the scale and bulk of the buildings, their visual impact would be highly localised’.

The data centre was ‘not inappropriate development in the greenbelt’, it said.

The notice said ‘significant weight’ had been given to harm to greenbelt land, however, the ‘planning balance’ had weighed in favour of approval.

‘Weighing in favour of the proposal is the direct and indirect employment which carries substantial weight’ as well as the ‘need and lack of alternative sites’.

Further benefits included opportunities for education and a boost in employment, and the developer’s pledged contribution to mitigating climate change.