Summary
- A proposed 100,000 sq m data centre at Charlton Riverside is colliding with Greenwich Council’s ambition for around 8,000 homes and 1,000 jobs.
- The project remains at an early planning stage, with no full data centre planning permission in place.
- The dispute captures a wider London planning problem: housing and digital infrastructure increasingly compete for land, electricity, water, and enabling infrastructure.
A proposed 100,000 sq m data centre at Charlton Riverside has become a test of how London balances digital infrastructure against housing and regeneration on scarce industrial land.
Tyburn RWC Limited is pursuing the proposal on land between the River Thames and Woolwich Road in southeast London. The scheme would occupy the Stone Foundries and VIP trading estates and the CSB Logistics site, with approximately 75,000 sq m devoted to the data centre itself alongside generator yards, a substation, offices, and supporting infrastructure.
The proposal is still at an early stage. Tyburn sought an Environmental Impact Assessment scoping opinion rather than full planning permission, and the project therefore remains a development concept rather than an approved data centre.
Its location is what has turned the scheme into a wider policy argument. Greenwich Council, Transport for London, and City Hall have been developing plans for Charlton Riverside that envisage around 8,000 homes, better transport links, and approximately 1,000 jobs over the coming two decades.
Greenwich Council has said the data centre proposal conflicts with that vision. Supporters of the project argue that digital infrastructure is itself necessary for London’s economy and that investment in roads, landscaping, and other enabling works could help unlock surrounding regeneration.
The disagreement received renewed attention on Sunday as BBC Politics London examined whether the capital can accommodate both rising data centre demand and its housing ambitions.
The two uses compete in ways that extend beyond land. New housing needs electricity, water, transport, and public services. Data centres require substantial electrical connections, resilient cooling arrangements, backup systems, and fibre. Where local infrastructure has limited headroom, approving one large load can affect how quickly another connects.
London has already experienced that interaction. Constraints in west London prompted concern in previous years that electricity network limitations could delay residential development, while rapid data centre expansion increased the amount of large demand seeking connections in the same areas.
The policy response is becoming more explicit. Data centres have moved from a niche industrial planning category towards strategic infrastructure policy, reflecting both the growth of cloud and AI demand and the government’s designation of the sector as critical national infrastructure.
That status does not give individual developments an automatic planning entitlement. Projects still have to be assessed against local land policy, environmental effects, and infrastructure capacity. At Charlton, the central question is therefore not whether data centres are needed in general, but whether this particular use is compatible with the redevelopment of this particular part of London.
Water and environmental impact have also entered the local debate. The government told the BBC that data centres account for a small proportion of England’s non household potable water use and argued that newer cooling designs can use little fresh water. Critics remain concerned about the cumulative resource demands of future facilities.
Those positions are not necessarily contradictory. National consumption figures can remain low while individual projects still create local constraints, particularly if several large facilities cluster on the same electricity or water network.
The developer has argued that the project could improve the surrounding industrial area and make nearby development more viable. That case will ultimately need to be tested through the planning process against Greenwich’s regeneration strategy and the detailed infrastructure requirements of the facility.
The current project site says the developer expects delivery by 2029 if approval is secured. A full planning application has not yet been submitted.
Charlton therefore provides an early example of a planning conflict likely to recur elsewhere in the capital. London needs additional housing and additional digital capacity, but neither exists independently of physical infrastructure. When both seek the same powered, connected, and developable land, planning authorities have to make choices about sequencing, location, and public benefit rather than treating each market in isolation.
