The UK government has approved the controversial proposal to redevelop Truman Brewery into a mixed-use development, including the construction of a data center.

Secretary of State for Housing Angela Rayner has given this project the go-ahead after the initial plans to redevelop the former brewery, backed by the property’s owner Truman Estates and developer Zeloof LLP, were rejected by the local authority, Tower Hamlets Council, in 2025.

After Truman Estates appealed the council’s decision, the then-Secretary of State for Housing Steve Reed ‘called in’ the project, giving it the power to decide whether the development would go ahead.

All four of the appeals submitted by Truman Estates were approved by Rayner on behalf of Labour minister Matthew Pennycook, paving the way for the demolition of an existing property at 47 Grey Eagle Street – a set of buildings behind the main Truman Brewery complex – to make way for a 5.2MW, 5,266 sqm (56,682 sq ft) data center.

“The building currently on the site is utterly derelict, and home to anti-social and criminal activity. Like the Inspector, she considers the building, through its ruinous state, to be a profoundly negative element of the townscape,” reads the decision.

A petition against the data center has gathered more than 3,600 signatures, citing concerns about the facility’s environmental impact and its suitability to the local area.

Those opposed have also taken issue with the fact that the data center will primarily be used by the financial industry.

An alternative plan for the site, commissioned by the council, says it could accommodate 350 homes, including 44 for social housing. Tower Hamlets reportedly has more than 28,000 families on the council housing waiting list.

But Pennycook wrote that Rayner had seen “no detailed evidence before her of the feasibility and deliverability of an alternative residential-led scheme.”

Founded in the 1600s by the Truman family, Truman Brewery was one of the largest breweries in the world by the end of the 19th century, but closed down in 1989. The site was purchased by Iraqi textiles entrepreneur Ely Zeloof in 1995 for a reported fee of £10 million ($13.5m), and is now run by his sons. The redevelopment of the site is expected to cost £500 million ($673m).

The brewery site is already home to three colo data centers operated by Digital Realty, which acquired the interconnected LON1, LON2 and LON3 facilities on Hanbury Street when it purchased European data center operator Interxion in 2019.