Miatta Fahnbulleh addresses party conference for first time as Energy Secretary – her speech in full

Conference, it’s a huge privilege to be standing here as the first black female Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. And I could not be more delighted to be working alongside such an incredible team, Michael, Katie, Martin, Polly, Blair and Margaret. We have got a fight on our hands.

Because Conference, this summer something changed. Climate change stopped being about a warning about the future. Or something happening somewhere else. We all felt it.

The hottest summer since records began. Families struggling in homes that were simply too hot. Green fields scorched brown. Homes lost in wildfires, in places we never thought would burn. And our incredible firefighters, working in unimaginable conditions, protecting the places that we love. And around the world, we saw the same story and worse.

Friends, Climate change is here. There can be no doubt about it. And yet, today there are politicians who refuse to see what we can all see. Who are prepared to play politics with our communities and our children’s futures.

So when Kemi Badenoch says we should abandon our climate goals and refuse to take action. I say, we have a duty to protect our communities.

When Richard Tice says forget net stupid zero. Let’s simply ‘enjoy the heat’. I say, tell that to the families whose homes have been threatened by fire. Tell that to the firefighters working through unbearable heat. Tell that to the parents wondering what kind of country our children will inherit.

Conference, it falls to this Labour Government, to this Labour Party, to act. Because this has always been Labour’s fight. We fought to introduce the first Climate Change Act, legislation replicated the world over. We cut emissions faster than any other leading economy. Led the world on global climate action. And stayed the course when others faltered.

We cannot allow that progress to fragment and fray. Because this is about something fundamental. Protecting our communities. Protecting our country. Protecting our children’s future.

Conference this is Labour’s fight. And we will not walk away from it. And because Labour is the only Party rooted in people’s lives, we know this transition has to work for them.

And that starts with energy bills. For me, this is very simple. Energy is an everyday essential. It is not a luxury. You need it to heat your home. To cook your dinner. To run your business. To keep the lights on. And yet something so basic has become unaffordable for millions.

At a time when the cost of living is biting, we know how heavily energy bills weigh on people’s minds. That’s why one of the first things that Andy Burnham did on becoming Prime Minister was to give people some breathing space by scrapping VAT on energy bills. It’s why we took £150 off bills earlier this year. It’s why we are providing the Warm Home Discount to 6 million homes.

But I know that simply offering breathing space is not enough. We have to drive down bills for good. And if we are going to do that, we have to be honest about why they are high.

Bills are not high because of net zero. They are high because Britain has left itself exposed. Exposed to global fossil fuel markets we cannot control. Exposed to price shocks. Exposed to conflicts happening thousands of miles away. This is not energy security. So we must change it.

And the answer to high bills and climate change is ultimately the same. More clean, home grown energy. More homes, workplaces, and transport upgrades to make the most of clean power.

And look at the progress, we have already made. £100bn of investment in clean energy unlocked in 2 years alone. Enough clean energy consented to power over 20 million homes. 1.7 million homes cutting their bills with solar. But we need to go further.

And to do that, we have to willing to ask the question. Who is our energy system designed to serve? Not the mum who is choosing between heating and eating. Not the pensioner who is shivering under blankets to stay warm. Or the business owner who just can’t make the sums add up.

To understand how we got there, we have to look honestly at the choices has made as Britain. And the path we have been on for the last 40 years. Thatcher privatised and broke up our energy system and sold it off to powerful monopolies. The public lost control. We lost to a system designed to benefit shareholders, while families and businesses shoulder the costs. Where state owned operators from other countries provide the essentials which once were ours.

So it is simple. If we want an energy system that is fair. If we want an energy system that is affordable and works in our interests, the public needs to be in control. And people need a stake in it. Now that starts with Great British Energy – Britain’s first new publicly owned energy company for generations.

In under two years, Great British Energy has installed solar panels on a school or hospital every two days. Every two days we have helped cut bills and put money back into frontline services.  And last week, we opened Great British Energy’s head quartered in Aberdeen. Which will help train people to work in the industries that will power Britain’s future.

We are also building our nuclear industry, with public ownership at its heart through Great British Energy Nuclear, rolling out a new generation of small modular reactors. And we’ve hit a new record for nuclear jobs, with nearly 100,000 people working across the sector. Just imagine, just imagine where Britain could be today if we had moved faster. If we had invested earlier. If we had taken more control.

So conference, it falls to this Government, to this Labour Party, to act. To put everyday essentials back in our control, so they work in our interests. This has always been Labour’s fight. And we will not walk away from it.

Now public control cannot just mean national control. It has to mean local control too. Because power should always sit close to people. So that in postcode after postcode, community after community, people have a stake in the energy system we are building.

That’s why I am so proud that Great British Energy is launching our Local Power Plan. One billion pounds shared with councils, communities, and local residents to own and generate energy locally. Solar, wind, batteries, heat pumps – all powered by our communities. Owned by our communities. Working in our interest.

And today, I want to announce the next step. This Government will devolve the Warm Homes Plan, the biggest investment in home upgrades in British history. Instead of decisions being made in Whitehall, we will give Mayors, local government and communities the power to invest billions of pounds in their place.

To upgrade millions of homes. To renew estates. To train up young people for skilled jobs. To boost local businesses and their supply chain. To lift up their community. This will be the Great Home Upgrade. Postcode-by-postcode. Street-by-street, community-by-community.

Now more than half a century ago, a Labour Prime Minister spoke about the ‘white heat’ of technological change. Today, Britain is living through another transformation. A transformation in energy, in technology, in industry. And in the jobs that will power our country for decades to come.

The transition we are on is not simply an environmental project. It is an economic project. A force for reindustrialisation. One capable of bringing investment back into our cities, into our towns, into our communities.

Our net zero economy is one of the fastest growing sectors. It supports over a million jobs. Home to world leading industries. And if we get this right, we have the chance to rebuild industries that have been left behind. Revive communities that have been hollowed out. Create jobs that people can build a life on. Give people pride in their place.

But to get there, there is something we must get right. We must put the workers who have powered Britain for generations at heart of this change. Because we know what happens when economic change is done to people rather than with them.

We have seen it before at the hands of the Tories. Mining communities in South Wales.  Industrial communities across the North of England. Oil and gas communities in the North East of Scotland. The people that built and powered this great country. Abandoned, left with no plan for their place.

We will not make those same mistakes. That is not the Labour way. So Conference, it falls to this Government, to this Labour Party, to act. To protect and support our workers across all of our industries. To ensure any transition is fair and just. This has always been Labour’s fight. And we will not walk away from it.

Friends, if we want our country to hold together in an age of division, of scapegoating, of easy answers that never work. It falls on us, the Labour Party to deliver change. Not change for ideology’s sake, but practical change.

That means that life’s every day essentials are affordable again. That people have a home that is warm in the winter and comfortable in the summer. That they have a decent job they can raise a family on, in a community they love and are proud of. In a Britain that is hopeful. That can build things again. That can own things again. That can lead again.

A Britain that can look the next generation in the eye and say: When the challenge came, we did not walk away. We acted. We stood together. And we changed our country.

Thank you.

READ MORE: Labour Party Conference 2026: Full LabourList events programme, revealed

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