Essay by Eric Worrall
Energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh wants full Net Zero by 2030.
Who is Miatta Fahnbulleh, the radical-thinking new UK energy secretary?
Selection of economist formerly at helm of green thinktank marks continuation of decarbonising Miliband era
Sandra Laville Environment correspondentThu 23 Jul 2026 19.00 AEST
In her first 48 hours as energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh was left in no doubt about the thorny policy decision at the top of her in-tray. Protesters from Fossil Free London met her outside her new offices dressed as firefighters holding placards reading: “We’re already putting out fires, don’t start new ones.”
…
Protesters outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) on Wednesday were taking no chances on whether the rumours were correct, demanding in full voice that the new energy secretary scrap all new drilling.
…
Far from being a departure from the commitment to transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy, Fahnbulleh’s appointment is a continuation of the Miliband era, which drew rightwing attacks for his mission to decarbonise the UK’s power sector by 2030.
From 2017 to the end of 2023, Fahnbulleh led a policy thinktank widely considered the bible for radical economic thinking through the prism of climate, social justice and the environment.
The New Economics Foundation (NEF) coined the phrase “Green new deal” for a suite of policies to tackle the 2008 financial crisis, climate breakdown and soaring energy prices. As head of the NEF, Fahnbulleh was at the pinnacle of designing economic policies operating strictly within environmental limits and with social justice at their core.
…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/23/who-is-miatta-fahnbulleh-the-radical-thinking-new-uk-energy-secretary
So what kind of radical economics does Miatta promote? After 10 minutes of wading through detail light waffle, I asked Claude to figure out what her policy positions are.
How does Miatta Fahnbulleh think Britain’s economy should be fixed? Please include references.Searched the web, loaded tools
Here is a summary of Miatta Fahnbulleh’s economic thinking, drawing on her writing, interviews, and public statements across her career as an economist and now as a politician.
Who she is
Fahnbulleh is a developmental economist and Labour MP for Peckham (elected 2024). She led the New Economics Foundation (NEF) from 2017 to 2023, and is currently a minister in Andy Burnham’s cabinet following his becoming Prime Minister in July 2026. She describes herself as a “heterodox economist” — meaning she explicitly rejects mainstream neoliberal economic orthodoxy.
The diagnosis: a broken model
Her starting point is that Britain’s economic model is fundamentally dysfunctional, not merely in need of tweaking. She has argued that prolonged wage stagnation has pushed public patience to breaking point: “People’s tolerance for an unfair economic model has hit a buffer.” She warns this pressure will eventually produce “some kind of political retaliation” if not addressed structurally.
Her prescriptions
She has organised her thinking around several interconnected themes:
Active industrial policy over free markets. Her doctoral research focused on how state-led intervention drove development in Ghana and Kenya, and she carries that conviction into British politics. She believes governments must actively shape and direct markets rather than leaving outcomes to market forces alone.
Devolution of economic power. She is a strong champion of regional and local autonomy, arguing that communities understand their own economic needs better than Whitehall does. She has proposed giving local mayors genuine tax powers and authority over energy and transport. She frames this as “place-based economics” — rejecting one-size-fits-all national policy in favour of tailored regional strategies.
Alternative ownership models. Rather than blanket renationalisation, she favours expanding cooperatives, mutuals, and municipal ownership. She has been cautious about automatic state renationalisation of privatised utilities, preferring “municipal and not-for-profit options” as more practical alternatives.
A Green New Deal and Net Zero priority. She has pushed hard for rapid decarbonisation — including a “big sprint” towards a Net Zero electricity grid by 2030 — and argues green transition must be treated as an economic opportunity, not just a cost. She has advocated for rewriting fiscal rules to allow borrowing for green investment.
Redistributive policies. She supports rent controls, wealth taxes, price caps on essentials, a genuine living wage, free childcare and social care, and shorter working weeks. Her framing consistently prioritises how ordinary people experience the economy over headline growth figures.
Reforming fiscal rules. She has criticised Treasury fiscal rules as excessively restrictive, arguing they prevent necessary public investment. She has suggested replacing them with government-appointed “fiscal referees” to give more flexibility.
Corporate reform. She has called for moving businesses beyond short-term profit maximisation, and for greater democratic participation and citizen engagement in economic decisions.
The broader frame
Across all of this, Fahnbulleh’s approach is systemic rather than piecemeal. She has said the problem is not just that the wrong policies are in place, but that “there isn’t necessarily a sense of what the alternative looks like,” and has described her role as “articulating that” alternative — a post-neoliberal economic settlement built around people and the planet rather than growth as an end in itself.
Sources:
Miatta Fahnbulleh | New Economics Foundation
New Economics Foundation head Miatta Fahnbulleh on how to replace the UK’s broken economic model — New Statesman, 2018
The Rise of a Revolutionary Economist — Soal Magazine
The Story of Miatta Fahnbulleh — Labour’s Economic Voice — Trendos
The anti-growth extremist in Burnham’s cabinet — Spiked, July 2026 (critical perspective)
Miatta Fahnbulleh (politician) — Wikipedia
Read more: Claude.ai
I think a reasonable interpretation of all this is Miatta thinks Britain’s problem is not enough communism. She appears to reject orthodox economic ideas like fiscal discipline and prosperity through private ownership, and thinks more government intervention, and devolving power to local governments, will restore Britain’s prosperity.
In 2018, Miatta said “We’ve been saying the economy doesn’t work, but there isn’t necessarily a sense of what the alternative looks like… Our job is to start articulating that.“. I don’t think we need Miatta to articulate anything, the 20th century provides plenty of examples of what Britain’s future will look like if Miatta gets to implement her recycled ideas.
Even the Soviets realised towards the end that collectivism destroys prosperity, while private property and private ownership increases prosperity. The small private plots where Soviet farmers could grow food on their own land and sell it at market prices always vastly outproduced state owned collective farms.
China also got it, their current prosperity traces back to Deng Xiaoping‘s capitalist reforms and legalisation of private property. As Deng famously stated when asked about his free market reforms, “it doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white, if it catches mice it is a good cat”.
As for rejecting fiscal discipline, Turkey tried that recently – and ended up with a near triple digit inflation rate, and a currency which collapsed from 3.65 lira to the dollar in 2017 to 47 lira to the dollar today.
Devolving power to small local committees – that’s how President Chavez and President Maduro seized and maintained power in Venezuela, at least until Trump arrested Maduro. Turns out a tall hierarchy of committees stretching between ordinary people and the people at the top is useful for maintaining a facade of representative government, but in practice are much easier to manipulate than a genuine representative democracy or republic where federal representatives are elected directly by the people. Onion layered committees are great for the people in charge, but they stink at delivering prosperity. Going by the Venezuelan example, the people at the bottom of the heap usually end up having to supplement their diet with whatever they can dig out of trash cans.
Radical de-industrialisation for whatever reason, which would be an inevitable consequence of Net Zero by 2030 – I don’t think I need to name the 20th century examples of where that idea leads.
There is nothing that new about Miatta’s ideas, except possibly her plan to combine all those bad ideas into a single policy package.
But a large number of the young voters who have been indoctrinated from birth by the BBC, and who don’t have a clue how many people died thanks to socialism in the 20th century, might just believe Miatta’s ideas are the leadership they need. Because they have no idea all this has been tried before.
History education – you don’t miss it until it repeats on you.
