AGM & UK Housing Debate: Does home-ownership matter?

The SBE’s Annual General Meeting will be held at 5.15pm, and followed at 6pm by a debate on UK housing. Ian Mulheirn will describe a new model of house prices and home ownership and the factors behind recent trends in both, the conclusions of which may surprise. Kate Barker will talk about the wider conclusions of the Redfern Review on home-ownership.

Ian Mulheirn is the Director of Consulting at Oxford Economics, a global economics consultancy. He currently sits on the panel of the Redfern Review into the decline of home ownership and, in connection with that, Ian is leading Oxford Economics’ house price and home ownership modelling work.

Before moving to Oxford Economics Ian was the Director of the Social Market Foundation, a Westminster economics and public policy think tank, from 2008-2013. Prior to the SMF Ian was an economic adviser at HM Treasury where, as well as providing policy advice, he undertook extensive labour market and tax analysis.

He was a specialist adviser to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee inquiry into the Work Programme, and until recently sat on the Mayor of London’s Employment and Skills Working Group. Ian holds degrees in economics from Oxford University and University College London. In 2014 he won the Society of Professional Economists’ Rybczynski Prize.

Dame Kate Barker is a business economist.  At present she has a plural career, including as a non-executive director of Taylor Wimpey plc and the Yorkshire Building Society.  She was appointed as chairman of trustees for the British Coal Staff Superannuation Fund in 2014 and is a non-executive board member at the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Kate was a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) from 2001 until May 2010.  During this period, she led two major policy reviews for Government, on housing supply – published in 2004, and on land use planning, published in 2006.  In 2014, she published a short book: ‘Housing: Where’s the Plan?’

The debate wil be followed by a networking drinks reception. Please contact the SBE office on admin@spe.org.uk to register.

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