Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has described energy prices in Britain as “scandalous” and said making them more affordable is her “number one priority”. Speaking to journalists in Westminster, she criticised the Conservatives for ignoring the issue for “decades” and called the party’s U-turn on net zero “tragic”.
Fahnbulleh, who this week approved the Jackdaw gasfield, said she wants to show people the benefits of net zero through jobs and lower bills, not just tell them. Discussing her first days in post, she said: “The first graph I was given showed me energy prices versus our European competitors, and it is egregious, and it is scandalous, and it is absolutely unforgivable that we have had politics for decades now that have seen that trend and thought it was okay. It is not okay.”
Affordability as a Priority
“Fundamentally getting to a place where we're making energy bills more affordable for people and for businesses is my number one priority because it is the foundation for everything,” she said. Andy Burnham has asked ministers to consider whether standing charges can be removed from gas bills to ease pressure on families.
Fahnbulleh also attacked other parties for abandoning net zero commitments, saying the issue should be a “no-brainer”. She said: “I think it's a sad place for Reform to have got to, but I'm even sadder about the Tories, because they know better. And they've had a long tradition, including Boris Johnson, of working cross-party on climate action. It has been really painful and tragic to watch that consensus burst at a time when we're seeing the impacts of climate change.”
Delivering Tangible Change
The Peckham MP pledged to deliver change the public can feel, saying it was not enough to just tell people “this transition is great, huge amounts of investment”. She said: “No one cares if they don't feel it, if they don't see it. And so the way I'm thinking about the job is, we should never be purely beholden on targets. The targets are a good thing, it drives momentum in the system.”
“What matters is how it impacts our places and our communities. We need to drive down bills, because in the end that's the thing that is creating toxic politics around this, but ultimately it's also bringing the power of investment that will go into the transition. I think we'll win the argument because I think we're on the right side of history.”
Jackdaw Gasfield Approval
This week, the controversial Jackdaw gas field in Scotland was granted a drilling licence following a long legal battle. The project, off the coast of Aberdeen, had been in limbo for two years after the High Court ruled a previous approval invalid. Environmental groups had called for it to be scrapped, while supporters said it would support up to 3,500 jobs and generate billions of pounds in tax revenues.
A decision on Rosebank, the largest untapped oil field in the North Sea, is being made separately. Dismissing reports that a decision had been made, Fahnbulleh said: “Only I can make that decision. And I really enjoyed reading bits in the media like, ‘Andy's deciding this, John's deciding’, well actually, only I can make that decision, and the framework is really tight.”
