Microsoft says it will apply this autumn to build a data centre by Langley station, with building work from 2027. What the plans show, and how to comment.
Microsoft plans to submit a planning application this autumn for a data centre on the former Langley Business Centre site, next to Langley station. It hopes to start building in 2027.
The timetable comes from the consultation boards Microsoft showed residents at Langley College on 14 and 15 July. The company held a second drop-in at Langley Community Centre on Saturday 12 September, according to its Langley project page.
Microsoft calls the dates “tentative”. It says they “may change, and are reliant on the planning process”.
What Microsoft is proposing
The boards describe one data centre building, with data halls, offices and support facilities. Microsoft says its height “will be similar to that of a six storey office building”.
The plans include:
- a substation, which Microsoft says will need a separate planning application
- secure car and cycle parking, with electric vehicle charging
- a loading bay and ramp, and sustainable drainage
- acoustic screening around the site “to mitigate any noise generated”
- a public footpath through a wildflower meadow between Station Road and Mead Avenue
- public art commissioned locally
- keeping the mature boundary trees that screen neighbouring homes
The drawings of the views from homes to the south and east show chimneys. Microsoft says there “will be additional screening around the chimneys” and that the design may still change.
What has to be assessed
Microsoft says an Environmental Impact Assessment is under way. It will cover air quality, noise, climate, townscape, and daylight and sunlight. Noise modelling is looking at both the data centre and the substation.
The council’s planning register shows the formal first step. A request for an environmental scoping opinion, reference P/00437/096, was received on 14 May 2026. A scoping opinion sets out what the assessment must cover. The council’s planning portal still lists the request as undecided, and its documents were not on the council’s document search when we checked today.
On traffic, Microsoft says early indications are that the data centre would generate less traffic than the scheme approved in 2021, and less than the old business park did. A full Transport Assessment will come with the application.
A bigger plan in 2024
An earlier scoping request for the same land was made in March 2024. Its scoping report, reference P/00437/095, was written by the consultants Ramboll for MSFT MCIO Ltd. It described a larger scheme:
- an 83,960 square metre data centre campus
- two data centre buildings joined by an administration block
- buildings of about 21 metres, rising to 26 metres in the centre
- back-up diesel generators for use if the National Grid fails
The 2026 boards describe a single building. They do not give a floor area or a generator type. Microsoft’s global targets on the boards include “eliminating the use of diesel for backup power by 2030”.
Is the old permission still alive?
Microsoft’s own documents give two different answers.
The council granted outline permission, P/00437/093, on 29 January 2021. The Planning Committee record describes a data centre of up to 93,000 square metres on one plot and up to 60 homes on the other.
The 2024 Ramboll report said all pre-commencement conditions had been discharged and demolition carried out, so the permission “has therefore been implemented and is extant”. The 2026 consultation boards say the 2021 application “has now lapsed”, and that the new plans differ from it.
That matters. A live permission is a fallback a landowner can build out if a new application fails. The planning application should make clear which position Microsoft is taking.
The petition
A council ePetition asking Slough to pause approvals of new data centres names “Microsoft’s proposed data centre next to Langley Train Station”. It had 619 signatures today on the council’s petitions list, up from 285 when we first reported it on 21 August. It closes on 16 November 2026.
That is likely to be around the time Microsoft’s application lands. A petition cannot stop an application being made or decided, but its concerns can be raised as objections once the application is open for comment.
What it means for you
Nothing can be formally objected to yet, because no planning application has been submitted. What you can do now:
- Send Microsoft your views. Download its feedback form and email it to UKDC@microsoft.com. Microsoft’s community team is also on 0800 915 3677.
- Watch for the application. When it is registered it will get a reference number and a period for public comments. We will list it on Slough planning news.
- Comment to the council, not only to Microsoft. Comments to the developer are not objections. Only comments made on the application itself go to the council’s planning officers.
If you live near Station Road or Mead Avenue, the chimneys, the noise screening and the new footpath are the details to look for in the drawings.
Sources
- Microsoft, Langley datacentre planning update for the drop-in dates and venues, the site clearance by Coleman’s, and the contact details.
- Microsoft consultation boards, July 2026 for the proposal, the lapsed permission statement, the environmental assessments, traffic, the site being vacant since December 2023, the sustainability targets and the tentative timetable.
- Slough Borough Council planning portal, P/00437/096 for the May 2026 scoping request and its status.
- Ramboll, LON 05/06 EIA Scoping Report, March 2024, P/00437/095 for the 2024 scheme, the applicant, the heights, the generators, the 29 January 2021 permission date and the statement that it is extant.
- Slough Borough Council Planning Committee, P/00437/093 for the outline permission.
- Slough Borough Council ePetitions list for the signature count, checked 16 September 2026.
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