Winchester MP gives first major interview since election

Former vet Danny Chambers was elected for the Liberal Democrats on July 4, taking over from out-going MP Steve Brine.

The 42-year-old visited the Hampshire Chronicle office, where he expressed his desire to be in the heart of the community.

Mr Chambers said: “At the moment our office is on the industrial estate, it was our campaign office, but we might look at moving somewhere closer to town once we get going.

READ MORE: Danny Chambers, MP for Winchester, writes his first letter home from Westminster

Danny Chambers outside the Hampshire Chronicle office (Image: Chris Atkinson)

“What I’d really like is a High Street office. It depends on what the Parliamentary budget allows for, and Winchester is quite expensive. I would love to be really visible on the High Street, but if there’s somewhere off the High Street that is half the price, it is taxpayers’ money so that has to be kept in mind.

“I’m not in a hurry, but that’s what I’d like to do.”

Mr Chambers said that one of his major goals is seeing more investment in primary care such as doctors, GPs, and mental and public health, saying: “It’s all linked.

“It will massively ease the pressure on hospitals anyway. We have up to 50 per cent of people in the A&E because they can’t get the primary care, but it is cheaper to deliver in primary care than it is in hospital. And the other side of it is you can’t fix the NHS without sorting out social care.

“I was speaking to Alex Whitfield, who is the hospital head, and we’re talking about how at any given time in Winchester there are 160 people in the Royal Hampshire County Hospital who are well enough to go home, but don’t have anywhere to go. But the key thing is it costs £850 a night to keep someone in a hospital bed, and less than half of that could fund a social care package, but she thinks that we have the manpower to deliver the social care, the council just don’t have the finance. So, this situation isn’t even saving money it is costing more. We’re spending twice as much with the current situation.”

Mr Chambers argued that investing in primary and social care would free up hospital beds, putting less stress on hospitals, calling for a holistic view where investing in mental health services would help to free up police time to investigate crimes and where providing children in poverty with free school meals would have a positive effect.

He said: “When you speak to the police, they say that they spend more than 40 per cent of their time dealing with people with mental health issues. So, if your primary objective is to stop crime, investing in mental health would free up the police to spend more time fighting crime, while employing 20,000 more officers is just getting 20,000 more people dealing with people who have mental health and social care issues.

SEE ALSO: Danny Chambers criticises Donna Jones for Southport riots comments

“They can’t deal with burglaries and other issues because they are dealing with welfare issues.

“And there was a study a while ago where it showed that if you gave universal free school meals to people, it would generate up to £95b to the economy over a 20-year period, and £18.5b of that is because kids do better at school, and then get better jobs and pay more tax. And they are less likely to end up on benefits, less likely to have childhood obesity cost the NHS money, and less likely to go to prison, and it costs £46,000 a year to keep someone in prison. And if we give someone a free school meal it might stop them from going to prison in the first place.

“That’s the approach I want to take to look at how you solve problems, and they’re big problems, but having separate budgets and thinking that each one is trying to save money if you take a step back and say, ‘let’s invest mental health, and that will free up A&E and free up the police’, that’s a no brainer.”

Speaking about the plans to build a new hospital near Basingstoke, which would downgrade services at the RHCH, Mr Chambers said the he is interested to see what happens to the previous Conservative government’s new hospital programme under Labour, saying that if a new hospital is to be built, it has to “be in the right place.”

He continued: “We’re all for a new hospital, you wouldn’t be against a new hospital. The one in Basingstoke especially, it needs refurbishing and rebuilding. But people don’t vote for me to say, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice for Basingstoke to have a new hospital’, especially since we don’t want to lose services here. And if you create a new hospital west of where Frimley Park is now, if you create new hospitals 20 minutes up the M3 from each other, then you have nothing covering down to Bishop’s Waltham, Waltham Chase, all that way. It doesn’t make any sense. And there hasn’t been any consultation with Southampton or Portsmouth, and they’re already on black alerts all the time, and the people in Chandler’s Ford then have to default down there instead of to here, that is the main problem.”

When asked about housing, Mr Chambers reiterated his belief that communities should be at the heart of planning decisions and that the “right types of houses should be built in the right place.”

He said: “I think most people aren’t anti-house building, they want more homes, but it is building homes with no infrastructure that really annoys people. And I understand that.

READ NEXT: Danny Chambers leaving 'deeply rewarding job' to focus on role as MP

“What we’re trying to move from, is from less of a developer-led approach to a community-led approach. There are a lot of four-bedroom houses in Winchester which are not affordable, and which aren’t going to help your kids stay here because they can’t afford to buy anywhere else.

“One of the things that Labour was talking about was new towns as well, and I suppose if there are new towns built in the general region that will fulfil some of the numbers we need. I know there is talk about Popham Airfield as well – I don’t know if Labour is going to impose new towns on councils, and if they do that it is a bit out of your control.”

He added that new homes should be built to high standards and should include aspects such as solar panels, commenting: “We’re only letting developers make more profit if you build houses to a lower standard.”

Mr Chambers also discussed his campaign promise to help clean up Hampshire’s rivers, slamming Southern Water bosses for “a record number of sewage spills” last year.

He said: “Why are you giving your CEOs bonuses when this is happening? There is a point of principle as well. I think, making public benefit companies where they have to hit social and environmental targets before they are allowed to make a profit, and then making them put the profit back into the infrastructure.

“They paid about £80b to shareholders since they privatised, and they’ve borrowed about £60b, so they are loaded up with debt, and then they say that they need to put our bills up because they want to invest in infrastructure. There is no simple solution to these issues, but there are things we could do very quickly to start improving things.

READ ALSO: Hundreds attend service to rededicate church's refurbished war memorial

“It is a failure of regulation, because Southern Water is technically not breaking any laws, so they are allowed to act this way. Unless you start having tougher regulators and holding them to account and properly punishing them – at the moment the fines they are getting are so trivial compared to what they were paying out that it’s just the cost of doing business. If it was cheaper for them to fix the problem than pay the fine, then they would do that.

“You can’t solve these things overnight, but you can’t let them lie for 20 years.”

He concluded: “They talk about things going full circle; the House of Commons library send you your predecessor's maiden speeches to look at, and Steve Brine spoke about how we need to save Winchester’s A&E and maternity services so there you go!”