Why are data centres in East of England being branded 'insane'?

As the UK's dash for data centres shows no sign of slowing down, two councillors have highlighted a new concern over the facilities – on-site gas production.

Proposals for two hyperscale data centres in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire have been branded "insane" by Ed Gemmell, a councillor for Buckinghamshire Council, as they include gas power stations.

The government has designated data centres as "critical infrastructure" and said claims they were "draining the country's water or blowing carbon targets" were false.

"I'm not AI [artificial intelligence] averse, but saying we can't get enough electricity so we need a gas power station is a really terrible idea," said Susan Clinch, a Central Bedfordshire councillor.

"The International Energy Agency notes that the carbon savings enabled by AI could be three to four times larger than the emissions created by the data centres themselves," a government spokesperson said.

Quest Park has proposed building a data centre at Quest Pit, a former quarry it owns next to the planned Universal theme park in Bedfordshire.

The company said the £9.5bn project would provide more than 1,000 jobs.

SDC Capital Partners is proposing to build another data centre at a former landfill site next to the M40 in Buckinghamshire, between Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield.

The area sits within the largest cluster of data centres in the UK, known as the Slough Availability Zone, and SDC said the facility could provide 400 jobs.

The second public consultation into SDC's plans is currently under way.

Blake Stephenson, the Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire, who also sits on the Environmental Audit Committee, said he felt Quest Park was the wrong site for a "huge data centre", but acknowledged it was important to have UK facilities for "national security and personal data protection".

"They're really critical to our economy and they're really critical to the services that we all rely on," he said.

Data centres require a large amount of power to run and existing facilities consume about 2.5% of the UK's electricity.

The UK's daily energy demand, on average, is 30GW, according to the National Energy System Operator (NESO).

It added the UK generates between 25GW and 33GW of electricity on an average day, via technologies, including wind, solar, nuclear and gas.

Quest Park would have a power load - the total amount of electrical power drawn at any given time - of 1GW and SDC's site would require 300MW.

About 1GW of electricity could power three million average British homes, according to NESO.

Quest Park and SDC's proposals said on-site gas would provide "resilience" and prevent heavy demand on the National Grid.

Both companies said they plan to connect to the grid once it can meet the demand of their sites.

Foxglove, a campaign group, estimated the combined greenhouse gas emissions of both plants - if operating at full capacity and powered by gas - could be as high as 4.5m tonnes per year.

The figure is three times as much as Luton Airport's emissions, which were 1.3m tonnes in 2025 .

The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a not-for-profit organisation that looks at the impacts of climate change, agreed with Foxglove's calculations, adding typically two units of gas were required to produce one unit of electricity.

"I'm flabbergasted, it's insane," said Buckinghamshire independent councillor Ed Gemmell, who also leads the Climate Party.

"We are not against data centres as long as they come with their own independent energy source – but we assumed that would be renewables.

"Ideally they should be built near the coast to incorporate tidal power, which is totally reliable," said Gemmell.

David Kohler, the director of Quest Park, told the BBC the company's energy mix was still a "work in progress" and that incorporating renewable power was "sensible" but had to be "feasible".

He said creating 1GW of solar electricity would require an area equivalent to 15% of Bedfordshire, and that wind power was "intermittent and expensive".

He said the company was considering alternative technologies that did not rely on gas combustion.

"Foxglove's 'worst case' calculations [for] Quest Park are unduly pessimistic," Kohler added.

SDC's original proposal to the government included an "integrated gas turbine energy generation centre".

Its consultation documents also put forward a second option of an electrical sub-station.

An SDC spokesperson said: "It is premature to be speculating on CO2 emissions as we are still working to determine what energy solutions are most appropriate for the campus.

"Once this work is completed, we look forward to presenting our finalised power strategy."

A change in planning regulations means data centres can be approved by the government instead of local councils.

Both SDC and Quest Park submitted documents asking to be considered as "nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIP)", which the government agreed to do.

This allows them to apply directly to the Planning Inspectorate for permission for the projects, - which has not yet happened.

Rebecca Hare, independent councillor for Houghton Conquest on Central Bedfordshire Council, said: "The biggest concern from local people is the way these NSIP applications happen. The community feels blindsided."

She said: "There are obviously benefits [to data centres]: faster internet, cloud-based working, working from home, but we're bearing the brunt of a lot of national infrastructure in this area."

Hare added: "It feels like national strategy doesn't make sense – with these gas works required to fuel it, when we're working towards net zero."

Clinch, a Green Party councillor, said many local people were "hugely concerned" over the data centres but "feel there's nothing they can do" due to the planning process.

She backed calls by the Green Party for the government to "pause" approval of data centres until a more stringent environmental framework was in place.

A government spokesperson responded: "Not building new data centres would simply send investment and good jobs abroad, while leaving Britain dependent on other countries for processing sensitive health and defence data.

"This does not mean a blank cheque for big tech, or that every data centre should be approved.

"Developers should prioritise clean power, use water responsibly, create British jobs and supply chains, and provide investment to the communities in which they are built."

Stephenson said while the Conservative Party was "not anti-gas turbine", his preference for data centres was "that we always build on brownfield [land] first, and connect into the grid without gas turbines".

He added that during an Environmental Audit Committee session in July, he questioned a technology company about how much brownfield land was available across the country "with ready access to the grid, such that data centres with gas turbines shouldn't be needed".

He said there should be a "halfway house" when it came to planning decisions.

"It's important that government focuses on getting critical infrastructure built, because we need that for the future of our economy and prosperity, but we can't ignore local people at the same time," he added.

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