Kate Barker

For other people named Kate Barker, see Kate Barker (disambiguation).

Kate Barker CBE
Member of the Monetary Policy Committee
In office June 2001 – May 2010
Governor	Sir Edward George (2001-2003), Mervyn King (2003-present)
Personal details
Born	1957
Alma mater	St Hilda's College, Oxford
Profession	Economist

Kate Barker CBE (born 1957) is a British economist.

Barker grew up in Stoke-on-Trent. She received a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St Hilda's College, Oxford in 1979 and worked for a large pension fund in London. She was a Research Officer at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (1981–1985) and was then the Chief European Economist at the Ford Motor Company in Brentwood (1985–1994). From 1994-2001 she was Chief Economic Adviser at the CBI. She was also a member of the HM Treasury's Panel of Independent Economic Advisers 1996-97; and a non-executive Director of the Yorkshire Building Society (1999-April 2001).

Kate Barker was appointed as an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England with effect from 1 June 2001. The MPC is responsible for setting interest rates to meet the Government's inflation target. She is the first external MPC member to have been appointed for three terms, the latest of which ended on May 31, 2010. She was not eligible for a fourth term.

She was appointed by the Government in April 2003 to conduct an independent Review of UK Housing Supply; leading to a final report in March 2004. The Government’s full response to this review was published in December 2005. In October 2005 she was appointed a Board Member of the Housing Corporation, and in 2008 of one of its successor bodies, the Homes and Communities Agency. In December 2005, she was asked to conduct an independent Review of Land Use Planning, and she reported on 5 December 2006.

She was chair of governors at Anglia Ruskin University 2007-2010.

Kate Barker was awarded a CBE for Services to Social Housing in 2006. She is an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences.

She is Chair of the Northern Ireland Economic Advisory Group, a member of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Housing Market Taskforce, a member of Council of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, and an independent member of the Football Regulatory Authority of the Football Association.

She chairs the advisory board for the Spatial Economics Research Centre at the London School of Economics (LSE), is a member of the advisory board for the Centre for Economic Policy at the LSE, and also of the advisory board for the Centre for Business Research at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. She is a senior visiting fellow in the Department of Land Economy at Cambridge University.

She is a non-executive director on the boards of Taylor Wimpey plc, Electra Partners, and the Yorkshire Building Society. She is a senior adviser to Credit Suisse.

In June 2011 she was appointed as one of two non-executive directors of the UK government's Office for Budget Responsibility.

In October 2011, Kate Barker was made an honorary Doctor of Science by Anglia Ruskin University.

External links

• Biography from Bank of England
• Interview about her career