Jürgen Maier, Ed Miliband’s clean power tsar, has quit Labour’s flagship energy quango after just two years in the job.
Mr Maier was appointed in 2024 to set up Great British Energy (GBE), which Labour’s election manifesto pledged would “cut bills for good” and create jobs “in every corner of the UK”.
Confirming his departure, Mr Maier said his role at GBE had always been to act as “start-up chair” through its first two years.
“I will remain fully committed to GBE until the new chair has been selected, which we expect to be later this autumn,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
However, his departure will raise fresh questions about the future of GBE, which many industry insiders believe lacks the financial resources to have any significant effect on bills or UK jobs.
Mr Maier, a veteran engineer and industrialist, was previously chief executive at Siemens, the £200bn German engineering and technology giant.
Before his appointment, Mr Maier was known for his criticism of Brexit, arguing that quitting the EU would hit UK industries like a “slow puncture” and make it far harder to export.
At GBE, he was given a budget of £8.3bn, a relatively small sum in the context of UK energy investments. A single large offshore wind farm, for example, costs several billion pounds.
About £2.5bn of that money was subsequently hived off to support Great British Nuclear, a separate quango.
The role was also highly political after Labour made the creation of GBE a central pillar of its 2024 election manifesto.
Sir Keir Starmer promised GBE would create 1,000 jobs at its Scottish headquarters and cut bills by up to £300.
However, in early 2025, Mr Maier faced criticism after admitting that creating 1,000 jobs could take two decades. He also repeatedly refused to say when household bills would be cut at all, let alone by £300.
He faced further scrutiny in March this year after he argued in a LinkedIn post for “more North Sea oil and gas production” to slow job losses in the sector.
The remarks clashed with Mr Miliband’s pledge to halt all new drilling in UK waters.
