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Cable and Blanchflower to address annual industry conference

The British Property Federation’s (BPF) annual conference will see Business Secretary Vince Cable MP and David Blanchflower, the outspoken former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, address key figures from the property industry.

Scheduled for 25 May 2011 in central London, industry chiefs from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, British Land, BlackRock and Argent plc will also provide their insights during the half-day conference.

The conference, Investment in the Age of Austerity, will look at the economic developments of the past year, examine the impact of the Coalition Government’s policies on the UK property market and the real prospects for recovery in the industry.

Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: “It is a real coup for the property industry to have both Vince Cable and David Blanchflower addressing our annual conference.

“Vince will offer unparalleled insight into Coalition Government policies and David is one of the most respected economic figures in the world, one of the very few to correctly call the depths of the recession gripping the economy.

“Between them we should come away with a real insight into how well placed the property industry is to continue its recovery into 2011.”

Speaker biographies

The Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP was born in 1943. He was educated at Nunthorpe Grammar School in York and read Natural Science and Economics at Cambridge University, where he was President of the Union, after which he studied for a PhD at Glasgow University.

Vince worked as Treasury Finance Officer for the Kenyan Government between 1966 and 1968. From 1968 to 1974 he lectured in Economics at Glasgow University. He worked as a First Secretary in the Diplomatic Service in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1974-1976). He was then Deputy Director of the Overseas Development Institute, which included a period working as a Special Adviser to the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, John Smith MP. From 1983 to 1990, Vince worked as Special Adviser on Economic Affairs for the Commonwealth Secretary General, Sir Sonny Ramphal.

From 1990, Vince Cable worked for Shell International and in 1995 became the company’s Chief Economist. He was appointed head of the economics programme at Chatham House and since becoming an MP in 1997, was appointed a fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford and was a visiting research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics.

He joined the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet in October 1999 as spokesman on Trade and Industry after a spell as a junior Treasury spokesman. Until he was appointed to the Coalition Government as Business Secretary in May 2010, he had been the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor from November 2003 and from March 2006 Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats.

David ‘Danny’ Blanchflower CBE is a leading labour economist and currently a professor of economics at Dartmouth College in the US. Until 2009 he was also one of the Bank of England’s senior policy makers. As a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) for three years, he was one of the few economists to correctly call the depths of the recession gripping the economy and has spoken out about the caution of his fellow MPC members.

For further information or to organise an interview please contact:

Patrick Clift, Media and Public Affairs Manager, British Property Federation, on 07834 439 505, or pclift@bpf.org.uk

Paul Sweeney, Media Assistant, British Property Federation, psweeney@bpf.org.uk  – 020 7802 0113

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