Banbury candidate interviews: Arron Baker – Green Party

25/06/2024

“The Green Party’s approach of honesty in politics is what’s really driven me to be part of the Greens”

Born in Stafford, Arron Baker is a former marine engineer who’s lived in Chipping Norton for 20 years. He currently works for a non-political trade union in the energy and bioscience sectors and enjoys working with people, and supporting them. He says moving into politics is the next natural step.

Arron joined the Green Party because he says we’re at a point in time where we need people who can make the right decisions. “We’ve got quite a looming number of challenges that we all face – whether that’s biodiversity loss, climate change and the world that we’re living in at the moment,” Arron said.

“When I’ve looked at politics there’s too much adversarial politics. You’ve got two main parties and I don’t think it gives enough opportunity for people to work more collaboratively together. The Green Party’s approach of honesty in politics is what’s really driven me to be part of the Greens”.

Addressing climate change is high on the Green Party’s list of priorities. Arron says we can all make small changes, but we do need national policy decisions to back that up.

“Being able to introduce insulation for homes, which is going to reduce the costs to residents, that’s one decision that can be made.

“It’s also about how we can look to invest in our green economy. Unfortunately, at the moment with the other political parties we’re not getting sufficient traction with regards to the green investment that needs to take place. If we don’t take that action now it’s just going to cost us more in the future, because we need to do it.”

In terms of the cost of Green Party policies, Arron believes those with the broadest shoulders should pick up the costs. He said: “Where we have the wealth of those who’ve got assets over £10 million, or those over a £1billion, that’s ultimately where the majority of the funding and money would come from to assist in the investment we so desperately need.”

Arron acknowledges the balance needed between protecting the Green belt whilst delivering new homes, but he says this can be done in a sustainable way, as has been demonstrated in Hook Norton.

“The Bourne Green Project is a community based sustainable build where effectively it’s 90 percent of the amount of carbon that it’s taken to build these houses, compared with traditional house building. It’s very much designed around the needs of community as opposed to what we often we see as a generic build.

“The Green Party want to introduce a charter around the right place, with the right time, with the right resource for house building.”

Health and social care will receive a £50billion investment under Green party plans and Arron believes they are the party most likely to support the NHS “in the best way possible”.

He said: “We value the NHS. There’s an additional £20billion of capital investment to bring hospitals, primary care buildings and NHS equipment up to date. In recent reports it’s very clear that some of the concerns around the Horton are the state of the buildings and the equipment that’s available there.”

Arron added: “We’ve had fifteen years of Conservative rule. I think Victoria Prentis, the incumbent MP of the Conservative Party has said that she’s been in support of the NHS. I think her current policy says that and her previous ones have. But that’s not what we’ve seen: the reality is that the Horton locally has declined massively. We really need to turn that around.”

You can listen to the full interview here: