Plugged in, turned off.

By Cavendish

"Nobody voted for this."

If you've followed the data centre debate this year, you'll have seen that line. Under pictures of farmland in Fife. In threads about hosepipe bans. In the row over Brick Lane.

Cavendish wanted to know how it got there, so they tracked every post on data centres from the MPs, ministers, journalists, commentators and campaigners who shape British politics online since January, and set it against more than a million public posts and articles.

Cavendish mapped the six tribes driving the backlash, from the Hypocrisy Hunters to the Yes-Buts, walking through how a typical data centre backlash unfolds, and setting out practical steps developers can take to get ahead of it.

The result is our new report, Plugged in, turned off. Here's what they found.

It went mainstream this summer.

For the first four months of 2026, data centres were a simmer. Then a drought summer, a Net Zero row and a run of controversial approvals turned them into something people could see, and resent. The conversation among agenda-setters quadrupled from May.

The left and the populist right are telling the same story.

One side blames billionaires. The other blames Net Zerohypocrisy. But both land in the same place: communities carry the cost, someone else takes the reward. When both ends of politics agree on your problem, a change of government won't fix it.

Water is the weak spot.

It was the most discussed theme of the year, ahead of energy and bills. Grid capacity is abstract. A hosepipe ban is personal.

The case for data centres is barely being heard.

Opponents generate more than nine in ten engagements. The voices making the case for building get around 5%. The facts that might reassure people exist. They just aren't reaching anyone.

If you'd like to know what's being said about your own projects, or talk through what this means for your sector, contact a member of the Cavendish team.

Download the report here.

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