Miatta Fahnbulleh: 'I'm the minister for energy consumers and I've got one job'

New Statesman​

28-04-2025

Image: Aidan Synott/ASV Photography ltd
Miatta Fahnbulleh's path to parliament was both highly conventional and utterly unconventional.
Conventional because she went from independent school to Oxford University where she studied philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) – a mainstay for wannabe politicians – before a postgraduate degree in economic development. Conventional, too, given she worked in the world of think tanks (first at IPPR and then as chief executive of the New Economics Foundation), as a policy adviser inside Downing Street, and as policy adviser to the then leader of the opposition – and now her departmental boss – Ed Miliband.
So far, so orthodox. But Fahnbulleh's story is different, too. At the age of seven, she escaped civil war in West Africa and made a new home in the UK. Although the family settled in north London, their centre of gravity became Peckham in south-east London. She says the area, with its sizeable Sierra Leonean community, taught her the values of compassion and solidarity that shaped her politics, and much more besides.
'We had family there but, more importantly, church was there, it's where you went to do your food shopping, it's where you went to braid your hair,' she tells Spotlight. We are sitting in the bright expanse of the Portcullis House atrium, next to the Palace of Westminster and a place where journalists and politicians meet. Her only props are a large, yellow water bottle and an equally outsized red ministerial folder.
Fahnbulleh, 45, always knew she wanted to serve in some capacity. In the event, it took a pandemic to convince her to stand for parliament. And Harriet Harman's announcement that she was retiring as MP for Peckham and Camberwell was the clincher. Fahnbulleh was selected as the candidate for the redrawn Peckham constituency, and won it last July with 58.8 per cent of the vote. Within days she became one of five new MPs to be given a ministerial role despite having no previous parliamentary experience.
On how the Covid-19 lockdowns influenced her sense of purpose, she recalls the prevailing inequality – 'the key workers we were clapping but had undervalued for too long' – and saw it as a 'moment of change'. However, when the country reverted to the old normal post-pandemic – 'worse than the old normal, in many respects' – she says she felt 'winded'. She knew the country needed people who would push politicians into action. But she knew, too, that the country needed politicians.
'You feel it when you walk around Peckham because you see how much the system not working bears down on parts of the community,' she says. 'If I have a chance to have an impact on energy bills and to upgrade people's homes, that's bread-and-butter stuff.'
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Which brings us to her day job.
Spend time down the rabbit hole that is the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero section of the gov.uk website, and you'll encounter a laundry list of responsibilities that fall to the minister for energy consumers. Areas of concern include clean heat, fuel poverty, public-sector decarbonisation, prepayment meters, and much, much more. It's a wide brief.
Fahnbulleh, as the incumbent, has a pithier definition. 'I'm the minister for energy consumers and I've got one job: to get the energy market to work for people.' In practice this means reducing energy bills, making a 'big sprint' towards clean power by 2030, and giving people greater confidence and trust in the market.
This is easier said than done. In early April the energy price cap went up for a third time in a row. The average annual energy bill rose to £1,849, an increase of 6.4 per cent on the previous price cap. For a government that pledged to cut bills by up to £300 within the lifetime of a five-year parliament, this is not a good start. And for an electorate that voted for change, the wait will feel endless.
According to Fahnbulleh's analysis, four fifths of the price cap increase is driven by wholesale energy prices. The solution? End our reliance on fossil fuels. 'Sprinting to clean power by 2030 is about breaking that dependence.'
Put aside how Westminster insiders will tell you privately that greening the electricity grid by 2030 is a delusion (Fahnbulleh calls the target 'punchy'). There is another problem with this solution. It is a promise of jam tomorrow. What are households, struggling to pay their bills today, supposed to do in the meantime?
That's where a series of mitigations come in, says Fahnbulleh. She points to the Warm Home Discount, providing a one-off £150 electricity discount for up to 6.1 million households next winter, and the Warm Homes Plan, support to help householders upgrade drafty, energy-inefficient properties and save money in the process. Fahnbulleh told the Energy Select Committee late last year that retrofit activity could reduce bills by £200 on average.
Fahnbulleh is convinced that the department's clean power plan is a key part of the consumer story. 'Reliance on fossil fuels got us into the worst energy crisis we've seen in generations. The way out of this bind is to make the transition.'
Nevertheless, energy bills remain expensive and the application of levies, often for the best of reasons, only make them more so. Critics argue the levies are too high; that they are focused too heavily on environmental measures, accounting for almost two thirds of overall costs; too skewed towards greener electricity and away from dirtier gas (16 per cent and 5.5 per cent of final bills, respectively); and that they are regressive and likely to contribute to fuel poverty.
'Most of these levies are doing one of two things,' says Fahnbulleh by way of defence. 'They are either supporting low-income households… or helping with the transition. They will work if the transition happens and impacts on people's pockets.'
Would it not be better to put some of those environmental costs through general taxation? 'It's a question for the Chancellor, not me,' she says, while acknowledging the importance of regularly reviewing the composition of levies. She cites the differential between electricity and gas. 'What we won't do, however, is penalise consumers, particularly low-income consumers on gas. It's a policy quandary we are trying to work through but it is one we will find an innovative solution to.'
The two-track strategy – accelerated transition to renewables in the mid-to-long term, and an effort to retrofit homes to make them warmer today, coupled with financial aid for those in most need – remains Labour's approach.
Perhaps the most difficult moment for the government occurred within its first few weeks in power, when it chose to restrict winter fuel payments to pensioners across England and Wales. Previously universal, those payments would be limited to those on low incomes who receive specified benefits such as pension credit.
The decision was taken not by Fahnbulleh's energy department but by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in conjunction with the Department for Work and Pensions. Nor is it strictly an energy subsidy. It's a cost-of-living subsidy. Not that those affected care about such distinctions.
As minister for energy consumers, it may not be Fahnbulleh's policy but it has an impact on those she serves both in her constituency and at ministerial level. Asked what she thinks of the change, she says: 'When energy bills are high, anything that puts people under pressure is difficult. I'd be completely tin-eared if I didn't [recognise] that.' She again cites the mitigation the government is putting in place, this time £500m by way of support negotiated with the energy companies last winter, coupled with the £500m set aside through the Warm Home Discount.
One potential means of meeting the interlinked needs of energy affordability, sustainability and security is through the adoption of heat pumps. But here we encounter problems, too. The arms-length Climate Change Committee wants half of UK households to install a heat pump within the next 15 years.
There are two issues. First, costs remain higher than for a fossil fuel boiler. Second, given that less than 300,000 households have a heat pump today, the target of 17 million looks a long way off.
Again, the minister is bullish. She points to the fact that five of the six busiest months for the boiler upgrade scheme have come since Labour came into power. While Fahnbulleh insists that she is not going to force anyone to install a heat pump, she puts the uptick down to a government that is providing 'clarity rather than misinformation'.
Still, the target is a distant one, and perhaps the smart-meter rollout offers a cautionary tale. Initially launched in 2011, the Cameron government promised that every home would have a meter by 2019. Forty per cent of households are still without one today. Despite this, Fahnbulleh is a fan of the smart meter because she believes it allows people to take control of their energy consumption. 'Consumers are massively attuned to making savings at a time of high prices,' she argues.
As with smart meters, there is a danger that perceptions of heat pumps worsen, then calcify. Once a brand is damaged, repair is almost impossible. Fahnbulleh takes issue with this framing, pointing to the impact heat pumps have had elsewhere, not least in Denmark. 'They made their transition after the oil crisis in the 1970s,' she points out. 'They had the foresight to have those arguments decades ago.'
She uses this as a moment to make the big rallying cry for renewables. 'Fossil fuels are a finite resource that are depleting at pace and where consumption and demand is going up. Prices are only going one way,' she notes. 'Even if you don't believe in climate change, diversifying so you can give people access to cheaper energy and so you aren't being [buffeted] by global markets, is surely common sense.'
When the New Statesman compiled its Left Power List ahead of last year's general election, it described Fahnbulleh 'as a natural candidate to join the front bench in a Starmer administration'. Is she surprised that the prediction came to pass? 'I genuinely didn't think I'd have a job so early on,' she replies.
As an economist by trade, might the Treasury be her next and natural home? 'I came into politics to try and change the economy so it works for people. It doesn't matter what brief or portfolio I hold. For as long as I hold it, I'll always be trying to do that.'
Towards the end of our conversation, she pays a tribute to Harman, her long-standing Peckham predecessor. Fahnbulleh says that when she's in the constituency, people tell her that Harman is a tough act to follow. Fahnbulleh doesn't need reminding. 'National impact, yes, but huge impact locally,' she says of Harman. 'She fundamentally changed politics for women and also had that granular impact. That's a gem.'
With that, she picks up her yellow water bottle and red ministerial folder, and heads off to her next meeting – this time with her colleague, the housing minister Matthew Pennycook.
This article first appeared in our Spotlight Energy and Climate Change supplement of 24 April 2025.
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