Havering Residents Association Share Residents Fears Over The Loss Of The Green Belt.
Deputy Leader of Havering Council-Councillor Gillian Ford today writes in the Havering Daily:
Government changes to building on the greenbelt is overriding the local democratic process. Yesterday, the government announced a short list of seven new towns: Enfield, Greater Manchester, Greenwich, Bedfordshire, South Gloucestershire, Buckinghamshire and West Yorkshire. Each town is expected to deliver the minimum of 10,000 homes, with some rising to 40,000 over the years. This aligns with the governments push to deliver 1.5m homes.
We have seen the governments introduction of ‘grey belt’ with the threshold of being land that does not strongly contribute to Green Belt purposes. This will place huge pressure on some of Havering’s green belt sites.
Alongside this in the move to green energy the need for battery storage as solar and wind power require storage, contributing to further pressures on the green belt.
The government has also changed the status of Data Centres, announcing them as ‘national infrastructure’.
Deputy Leader Councillor Gillian Ford spoke at the Green Forum Hustings earlier this week, outlining the pressures Councils are facing with certain developments on the green belt.
Councillor Ford said “The green belt is Havering’s jewel in the crown, and we are known for our green and open spaces. That places the borough at risk of being a target for development. The current regulations around Very Special Circumstances has worked for many years but we have seen some changes in legislation, technological demands and energy shifts that threaten the green belt.
The HRA have been protecting sites we have the power to control, securing 14 Village Greens and will continue to do so. However, there are challenges for all parties in protecting green belt land when the world is changing with new needs demands and pressures. The HRA will continue to challenge and lobby against development we see as inappropriate, and where development cannot be stopped, we will ensure residents voices are heard and appropriate mitigations are incorporated.”
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Cllr Ford is, I think, mis-using the Government’s statement in order to justify support for the data centre. The description’critical infrastructure’ applied to data centres does NOT mean the government is saying we have to build some! Here is an extract from the papers prepared as part of the LDO:
‘In September 2024, the Government designated UK data centres – the buildings which store much of the data generated in the UK – as ‘Critical National Infrastructure’. This means that data housed and processed in UK data centres such as NHS patient records and sensitive financial investment information, is less likely to be compromised during outages, cyber-attacks and adverse weather events. Putting data centres on an equal footing as water, energy and emergency services systems will mean the data centre sector can now expect greater government support in anticipating and recovering from incidents, giving the industry greater reassurance when setting up business in the UK and helping generate economic growth for all.’
Havering is not designated as a priority location for data centres so the development may even get blocked as the designated site will get priority for power: UK government designated “AI Growth Zones”
AI Growth Zones – GOV.UK
• Oxfordshire (Culham) – announced in 2025, based at the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) site in Culham. It serves as a testing ground for sustainable energy to power AI infrastructure
• North East England – Designated in September 2025, this zone aims to attract major investment
• North Wales – announced in November 2025, focusing on AI infrastructure
• South Wales – announced in November 2025, part of a broader Welsh cluster for AI and digital growth
• Lanarkshire, Scotland – announced in January 2026, backed by £8.2 billion in private investment
The government is accelerating grid upgrades and offering a “Connections Accelerator Service” to fast-track power connections for AI Growth Zones so the East Havering Data Centre may not get priority (United Kingdom: Government Policy Paper – Delivering AI Growth Zones | Insight | Baker McKenzie)
Oh! What a tangled web we weave
Barely a mention of the data centre or BESS but a lot of crowing about Village Greens.
Hiding behind gross misrepresentations of ‘Government’ changes to building on Green Belt and ‘national infrastructure’ status for data centres.
These do not apply to or support the building a colossal data centre / BESS / 2 Substations on this greenest of Metropolitan Green Belt.
This ill-conceived venture has been relentlessly pursued at a local level by a desperate and opaque Council Leadership (HRA) in an unhealthy partnership with an opportunistic developer. Nobody told the Council they had to do this (other than the developer) – the local democratic process had not been overridden, as Councillor Ford claims.
Despite their pledges, HRA do not protect the Green Belt or residents – it is used as a convenient political option when it suits them rather than the guiding principle that it should be. Does anyone fact check these wild claims?
More weasel words – anyone would think that there were local elections coming up!