18 SEPTEMBER 1999, Page 31

After you, Reggie

TOMATOES are cheap but houses are pricy. So retail price inflation (all those Marks & Spencer salads) is at its lowest since Reginald Maudling was Chancellor, and house price inflation (all those greedy agents) is at its highest since Nigel Lawson complained of a blip. Setting interest rates last week, the Bank of England's monetary policy committee preferred to look at hous- es, and so would I. We should have learned since poor old Reggie's day that house prices are a leading indicator and that shop prices follow. We have certainly paid an inflated price for our lessons.