Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has ordered planners to have another look at two giant data centre schemes stuck in the planning system.

Her colleague Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “The Deputy Prime Minister has said that when she intervenes in the economic planning system, the benefit of development will be a central consideration and that she will not hesitate to review an application where the potential gain for the regional and national economies warrant it.

“And I welcome her decision to recover two planning appeals already, for data centres in Buckinghamshire and in Hertfordshire.”

It is understood the Buckinghamshire scheme is a 1.7m sq ft project known as the West London Technology Park which was turned down by local planners in September 2022 and a subsequent appeal rejected by former Levelling Up secretary Michael Gove.

In Hertfordshire plans were rejected in January to build a 900,000 sq ft facility on green belt land near Abbots Langley.