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Nonprofit Says Senior UK Officials Met 137 Businesses, No Environmental Groups, on AI Datacentre Policy, Guardian Reports

Bot Mutiny | October 27, 2026

Senior UK officials held no meetings with environmental groups while developing the government's AI datacentre policy, according to an investigation by the nonprofit Spotlight on Corruption, the Guardian reported on October 27, 2026. The group said ministers and senior officials involved in shaping the policy met 137 businesses, some of them several times, and only two community groups. A government spokesperson said datacentres should "deliver benefits for the communities that host them."

What the investigation found

Spotlight on Corruption said it filed 40 freedom of information requests to 18 government agencies over 12 months, seeking details of meetings and investment figures about "AI growth zones" for the period from July 2024 to June 2026. The Guardian described the zones as a central plank of the former prime minister Keir Starmer's AI and economic policy, under which the government promised large datacentres across five regions.

According to the group's report, as described by the Guardian, ministers, permanent secretaries and directors general involved in developing the policy met 137 businesses. By contrast, senior officials met two community groups and no environmental organizations. The report says the few meetings with civil society groups were "held a few days before the launch of the policy, meaning they had no meaningful input," the Guardian reported.

Kamila Kingstone, a campaign lead at the nonprofit, said, as quoted by the Guardian: "The government totally failed at the most senior level to speak to environmental NGOs or community groups when developing its flagship policy on AI datacentres. This is despite the serious environmental implications of its plans."

Officials who moved to AI companies

The group also reported that 38 ministers, senior civil servants and special advisers were hired into positions at AI companies between July 2024 and September 2026, which it described as a "considerable revolving door." The Guardian said nine of them came from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, including a former minister for AI and intellectual property, a former AI adviser to the prime minister, a former director of AI opportunities, a deputy director of AI international policy and a head of AI engineering. The Guardian said top officials left government for jobs at OpenAI and Anthropic.

The report says many further meetings between businesses and the administration would not have been disclosed, largely because the policy was led by a special adviser, Jade Leung, whose role was subject to far less stringent transparency requirements, according to the Guardian. It also compared the UK with Canada, Germany and Australia, which it said consulted far more widely on datacentres and set more stringent environmental criteria, and said the UK had "fallen behind equivalent jurisdictions."

Opposition and earlier Guardian reporting

The Guardian noted that opposition to datacentres in Britain is growing, with campaign groups protesting planned developments from Auchtertool, a village north of Edinburgh, to Brick Lane in east London. It said 14 local campaigns rallied at Holyrood in September. Chi Onwurah, the MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West, said the backlash was a warning that the government needed to seek greater community input: "It is critically important that AI benefits communities and is also shaped by them."

The Guardian said its own earlier investigations had called the growth zones policy into question, suggesting that it rests on assumptions that do not hold up, financial figures that were not audited and exaggerated job projections. It also said government departments appear to diverge on how much electricity the plans will require. Bot Mutiny separately covered a datacentre industry group's warning to ministers: Nvidia, Microsoft and Cisco Taskforce Tells UK Ministers They Have a Year to Head Off Datacentre Protests.

The government's response

A government spokesperson told the Guardian that datacentres "should create British jobs, strengthen supply chains and deliver benefits for the communities that host them," while prioritizing clean power and using water responsibly. The spokesperson said the government also meets with these companies "to make sure that happens." The spokesperson added: "We want to work closely with industry, local authorities, environmental groups and communities, and welcome opportunities to hear their views."

The spokesperson also said that for most proposed datacentre developments, community benefits are considered through local planning processes, and that the government has announced measures to let local authorities hosting datacentres in AI growth zones in England keep all the additional business rates they generate.