Miatta Fahnbulleh’s first conference address as Energy Secretary: full themes and policy signals

# What Fahnbulleh said and why it matters

Miatta Fahnbulleh opened her first address to party conference as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero by linking recent extreme weather to an urgent policy choice. She said the hottest summer on record, scorched fields and wildfires showed climate change is happening now and has direct impacts on families and emergency services.

She used that framing to criticise opponents who, she said, would abandon climate goals or downplay the consequences. Fahnbulleh positioned Labour as the party that will act to protect communities and children's futures.

# Bills, causes, and a straightforward diagnosis

Fahnbulleh argued that the root cause of high household energy bills is Britain's exposure to global fossil fuel markets. Her diagnosis: dependence on volatile international markets and foreign-owned operators makes the UK vulnerable to price shocks and conflicts. She rejected the claim that net zero is responsible for high bills.

# What Labour claims it has already done

Fahnbulleh listed recent government actions aimed at easing bills and boosting clean energy:

• Scrapped VAT on energy bills to give households breathing space.
• Delivered a one-off £150 reduction in bills earlier in the year.
• Provided the Warm Home Discount to 6 million homes.
• Unlocked £100 billion of investment in clean energy in two years.
• Consented enough clean energy to power over 20 million homes.
• Supported solar installations on 1.7 million homes to cut bills.
• Launched Great British Energy, a new publicly owned company installing solar on public buildings such as schools and hospitals.

# Public ownership and who the system serves

Fahnbulleh traced the problem back to four decades of policy that privatised and fragmented the energy system. She argued that the system is designed to benefit shareholders and foreign state-owned operators, while leaving households and businesses to bear costs.

Her prescription is explicit: bring public ownership back into the mix and give people a stake in the energy system. Great British Energy is presented as the start of that shift, with a specific claim that it has been installing solar on a school or hospital every two days since its creation.

# The headline objective: lower bills through domestic clean power

The connecting thread of the speech is practical: reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels, expand domestic clean generation, and upgrade buildings and transport to use that clean power. Fahnbulleh framed this as a route to both energy security and permanently lower bills for households and businesses.

# Political positioning

Throughout the address Fahnbulleh contrasted Labour's commitments and record with opponents who she said would abandon climate goals or trivialise the impacts of warming. She framed Labour's approach as rooted in everyday needs—heat, cooking, running a business—and linked large policy choices to those daily essentials.

# What to watch next

Expect future announcements to focus on expanding Great British Energy's footprint, additional clean infrastructure consents, and programmes aimed at reducing household demand through home and transport upgrades. The speech signals a continued emphasis on public ownership as a policy tool to reshape costs and control over the energy system.