New research suggests that datacentres in the UK will create significantly fewer jobs than previously expected, while consuming large amounts of energy. The environmental thinktank Verdant has found that the 20 datacentre projects currently planned are likely to directly employ only about 10,400 people—far below the 40,000 jobs projected by the industry group TechUK. The study highlights a growing debate over the economic and environmental impact of the rapid expansion of datacentres, especially those focused on artificial intelligence (AI). Labour has supported the expansion despite public concerns about energy and water use, while the government has echoed TechUK's job estimates. Verdant’s findings are based on publicly available data from 20 projects, including planning applications and company reports. The thinktank notes that existing datacentres have created fewer than 4,400 direct jobs—roughly 8.6 jobs per megawatt of energy used. This is much lower than the 43.7 jobs per megawatt claimed in TechUK’s projections. Verdant also suggests that upcoming projects, which are larger in scale, may be even less job-intensive, potentially creating as few as 1.6 permanent positions per megawatt. The analysis focuses only on permanent operational roles, not the temporary construction jobs that are typically involved in building datacentres. James Meadway, co-director of Verdant, criticized the speed of the datacentre buildout, saying it is based on “very flimsy economic grounds.” He emphasized that while AI and related technologies have potential, the expansion of datacentres comes with significant costs to local communities and climate goals. He urged the government and industry to clearly justify the need for these facilities rather than building them first and addressing the consequences later. To highlight the energy intensity of datacentres, Verdant compared their job creation rate—about 8.6 jobs per megawatt of power—with 400 jobs in a car plant and more than 3,600 in a hospital. The government rejected this comparison, calling the methodology misleading and questioning the validity of the job-per-megawatt metric. A spokesperson argued that the report fails to account for the broader economic benefits of computing infrastructure and the importance of maintaining national security through domestic datacentres. Labour has classified AI datacentres as critical national infrastructure to speed up their development. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has supported this approach by appointing Kanishka Narayan as AI minister. Narayan has argued that expanding datacentre capacity is essential for national sovereignty, ensuring that the UK controls key technologies rather than relying on foreign entities. In contrast, the Green Party in England has called for a temporary halt on new datacentre projects, citing environmental and economic concerns. Protests have also emerged in Scotland, where critics argue that datacentres are being prioritized despite water shortages and local opposition.