The Truman site has been lying empty for years during which time the local community has fought off plan after plan based on the greed for profit rather than local needs. Residents put in a proposal to build 350 council homes on the site, something to alleviate the 28,000 people on the council waiting list, just in Tower Hamlets.
The current plan from Truman based around the data centre also proposes 44 flats of which six would be “affordable”. What an insult.
The Labour government of course sides with them. Adamant that data and AI is the future, they have greenlit the massive data centre on the site, Angela Raynor has signed off on this as Minister for Housing. Burnham’s government are up to their necks in it.
The data centre will create almost no jobs, soak up water and burn through electricity. Hundreds of people in Tower Hamlets have not had running water since 2025 yet the same borough is having a data centre built that will get priority as it is part of the Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) under Labour. Energy consumption is estimated to be at the level that could power 18,000 homes. Instead that electricity will go on one data centre.
It is ok though, because the datacentre will do something very important. It will help speed up financial transactions from the city of London by fractions of a second, giving us an important competitive advantage over Beijing and New York.
Profit making over people. What a wonderful world capitalism has built for us!
Local people, housing campaigners and climate activists are united in this fight against ‘energy drainer Angela Raynor’ as one placard put it. Protestors outside the Ministry of Housing in London on Friday 4 September had signs in Bengali and one person called for ‘Beigels, not bankers’ – a nod to the Jewish history of the area.
Speakers included Councillor Faysal Ahmed of Tower Hamlets’ ruling Aspire party who spoke among other things about the area being a refuge for minorities from the Huguenots to the Jews to today’s mainly South Asian population and Councillor Jonathan Purcell from the Green Party. Tower Hamlets Trades Council had their banner and Glynn Robbins spoke for them.
Other contributions came from the London Renters Union criticised Angela Raynor for accepting £20,000 speakers fee for a conference of private sector housing developers as well as agreeing the plan from Truman. A message of support was received from Park Royal and North Acton campaigners. There are already 10 data centres operating in Ealing and another proposed. One local residents home reached 39C. Local people feel surrounded by data centres.
Racism was called out more than once. Data centres – like incinerators – are often dumped on poor marginalised communities including oppressively racialised communities. The grassroots campaign were clear that despite it being a Friday evening the turnout was good and people participating whether through listening to speeches or joining in the chants was empowering and energising.
The campaigners are calling for a moratorium on all new data centre builds. We need to be clear – we are in a climate crisis and the start of ecological collapse. Every kilowatt of electricity wasted on pointless economic activity or the carbon released from buildings that only serve finance capital must be utterly opposed.
The Brick Lane data centre is at the epicentre of so many problems of late capitalism, the housing crisis, ecological destruction, droughts, Big Tech domination and so much more.
We need a proper plan for the economy that prioritises human need not waste and profit making. This is why we need an ecosocialist government committed to ending capitalism and creating a good life for all humans within sustainable planetary limits.
