Any questions for Kate Barker?

I’m interviewing Kate Barker at 4pm this afternoon as part of The Spectator’s ongoing inquiry into the causes of the recession. She is a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, so she has to regulate what she can say and when she says it. But she’s kindly agreed to be interviewed today, and we aim to publish what she says tomorrow.

I hear great things about her – which makes it all the more puzzling that her 2004 review on housing concluded that supply had to be vastly increased to meet the demand. In London, sure, but in depopulating towns like Blackpool? Didn’t she think there was an asset boom in place? I’d be amazed if the thought didn’t cross her mind – but it wasn’t anywhere in that review. Has she changed her mind in retrospect? What does she think caused the housing boom, and should the Bank of England even try to put a floor under the current housing crash?

This is a rare chance to quiz an MPC member.