New energy secretary Fahnbulleh faces £600 annual bill test

The average UK household energy bill is still £600 a year higher than it was in 2021. That is the number Miatta Fahnbulleh, the new energy secretary, will wake up to on her first morning in the department.

Fahnbulleh replaces Ed Miliband, who moves to the Foreign Office, as reported by Recharge News. The reshuffle was widely expected, but its timing, mid-parliament, with a fiscal event looming, means Fahnbulleh will have to hit the ground running on energy policy that directly affects every household in the country.

What the reshuffle means for your energy bills

Ofgem’s price cap is currently £1,568 a year for a typical dual-fuel household on direct debit. That is down from the £2,500 peak of winter 2022, but still 40% above the £1,050 level of early 2021. The gap is not a statistical quirk: it reflects higher wholesale gas costs, increased network charges, and the lingering cost of supplier failures.

The new secretary has limited room to move on wholesale prices, those are set in international markets. But she does control the policy levers that determine how much of that bill is network cost, how much is green levy, and how much households can save by upgrading their homes.

Miliband had committed to a Warm Homes Plan that would spend £6.6 billion over this parliament on insulation, heat pumps and solar. That budget is already allocated. The question is whether Fahnbulleh will defend it in the spending review or let the Treasury nibble at it.

Heat pumps, EPCs and the 2028 target

The government wants 600,000 heat pumps installed per year by 2028. Last year, the number was around 60,000. That is a tenfold gap, and it has not narrowed much under Miliband despite the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant.

Fahnbulleh’s background is in economic policy, she ran the New Economics Foundation think tank, rather than energy engineering. That could be an advantage. The heat pump problem is not technical; it is economic. Installation costs in the UK are roughly double those in Germany, partly because of a shortage of trained installers and partly because the supply chain is immature.

But the catch is this: the 2028 target is not a legal requirement. It is an ambition. If Fahnbulleh decides that pushing heat pumps too hard risks a political backlash from homeowners worried about upfront costs, she could quietly let the target slip. That would be a blow to the UK’s carbon targets, heating buildings accounts for about 15% of national emissions, but it would be popular with voters who see heat pumps as expensive and unproven.

What homeowners should do now

Uncertainty at the top of government is not a reason to delay. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is open until at least March 2027. The Great British Insulation Scheme still offers free or subsidised cavity wall and loft insulation for eligible households. The EPC C deadline for new tenancies in the private rented sector, currently 2028 in England, has not changed.

What has changed is the political weather. A new secretary may bring a different emphasis: more focus on consumer protection, less on stretching targets. That could mean slower progress on decarbonisation, but it could also mean more pragmatic schemes that actually get installed.

For a typical 3-bed semi, insulating the loft and cavity walls costs around £1,200 and saves about £300 a year on bills. A heat pump costs £7,000–£13,000 after the grant and saves roughly £400 a year compared with a gas boiler. Solar panels, 4 kW system, £6,000–£8,000, save £500–£600 a year on electricity. None of these numbers depend on who sits in the energy secretary’s chair.

The action point is simple: check your EPC certificate. If it is below C, look at the recommendations. The grants are there. The payback periods are reasonable. The new secretary’s job is to keep the policy stable, not to make headlines. Homeowners should do the same, keep upgrading, ignore the reshuffle noise, and let the numbers do the talking.