Brick Lane — One supposed fundamental political message has resonated through the entire ‘Burnhamism’ transition. It’s been repeated endlessly that this government’s core mission is to devolve power to “every postcode”.

In keeping with that message, local government and housing minster Angela Rayner shared online:

The data (centre) in Brick Lane says otherwise

The reason that Rayner’s posturing is not credible is because it’s directly contradicted by her recent actions.

The newly reinstalled housing minister (despite her council tax struggles), long-time Burnham ally is surely grateful for her return to the front benches. As such, she seems happy to tow the corporate, AI-led line.

Rayner’s department overturned the decision by Tower Hamlets council to block the construction of a massive data centre on Brick Lane, east-central London. And at the behest of City bankers, no less.

Many readers will be familiar with the historic street, renowned for its vibrant bar life, music events, weekend food markets and cultural heritage. These include world-famous Jewish bagel shops at one end and Banglatown’s curry shops at the other. And the proposed building site is the historic Truman Brewery.

Nonetheless, despite the outrage of local residents, business-owners and campaigners and a vote of elected representatives, the government is ploughing ahead. Planning has been granted to the energy-hungry eyesore, squashing the council’s powers — our most long-established form of local government.

It begs the question: what powers are being put “in the hands of communities”, exactly, if not these? Or perhaps it’s only the power to kick out Turkish barbers and small vape shops, not massive AI companies.

Nobody apart from the City is asking for a big fuck-off energy-hungry, water-draining data centre to be built on historic Brick Lane either (or anywhere else for that matter) but your new government approved it so here we are… https://t.co/wYpCxRGhP6

— C.J.Mc. Baillie (@cjmbaillie) August 12, 2026

Unpacking the big data problem

Data centres typically take up massive amounts of energy. They can single-handedly take 10% of an entire energy grid. The biggest can consume as much water as a small town of some 10,000–50,000 people.

As a consequence of these demands, they also put pricing pressures on local residents and businesses. In the US, energy prices in areas with data centres have soared by up to 267% according to Bloomberg data.

These have mostly become a focus of public scrutiny recently owing to the ongoing AI boom. Yet this Tower Hamlets data centre is designed to feed Canary Wharf. It aims to give them not more information, not more valuable information, but fractionally quicker information. Quicker by mere nanoseconds, for entirely socially unproductive micro-trades — pure speculation with no socially meaningful wealth creation.

The government’s justification is that the City banks’ growth margins will be worth it, since they’ll pay taxes locally. As the Canary writer Hugo Harvey put it recently:

In a borough with over 30,000 households on the social housing waiting list, the council wanted 800 homes on the same site instead. The government’s decision letter gives that plan “no more than limited weight.” Meanwhile, it gives the data centre “significant weight” for its economic benefits in meeting “the need for data centre capacity,” but never states how many jobs it will create.

The data centre was approved owing to “significant” benefits, yet nobody has been made to specify them. Meanwhile, an opportunity cost — more homes in an area needing homes — is overshadowed for growth.

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Another lot of empty words?

So far, Andy Burnham’s government has been replete with seemingly big pronouncements. But already — and since before he began — many doubt how genuine much of it is, as U-turn follows U-turn.

He’s trying to signal a break with Starmer, or four decades of neoliberalism, or the old way of doing things and “do things differently“. But, in many ways Burnham has doubled down on the worst of Labour’s record and the most destructive elements of establishment politics.

He put the mass-militarisation man in charge of the entire economy. He’s had the Palantir-linked, Mandelson-groomed pro-privatisation man in charge of defence. He kept the most anti-migrant Home Secretary. And he’s promising, if somewhat dubiously, to make Britain the “AI capital of Europe”.

Besides these major concerns, a lot of what we’ve seen has looked like small fixes, which in fairness please a lot of people. But small fixes can only go for so long, and especially when big decisions come knocking.

Burnham and Rayner might talk a big game on devolution and giving power back to communities. But it’s rare that power has wilfully been handed over so easily, without a catch.

It seems like, on this one, the catch is ultimately: if it contradicts finance capital, think again.

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Featured image via MyLondon

By Cameron Baillie

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