Strong data could prompt earlier UK rate rise - BoE's McCafferty

* McCafferty says rate rise debate now "more balanced"

* Timing of rise will hinge on summer and autumn data

* Housing market worries should be kept in perspective (Wraps in other comments on rates and housing market)

By David Milliken and Ana Nicolaci da Costa (NasdaqGS: ATX - news)

LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - The Bank of England is getting closer to raising interest rates, and data over the summer and autumn will play a critical role in determining the exact timing, BoE (Shenzhen: 000725.SZ - news) policymaker Ian McCafferty said on Monday.

BoE forecasts last month showed that a rate rise as late as the second quarter of 2015 would be enough for the central bank to meet its inflation target, but McCafferty's comments indicate that he would consider an earlier move under some circumstances.

"The time when it becomes appropriate for interest rates in the UK to start to rise back to a more normal level is approaching," McCafferty said in an interview with London radio station LBC.

He described the case for rate rises as "more balanced" than before. That language was used in the BoE's May Monetary Policy Committee minutes by a minority of unnamed policymakers who thought rates might need to rise sooner than the majority did.

Some economists think one or two MPC (KOSDAQ: 050540.KQ - news) members could vote for a rate rise as early as August, though McCafferty said he might need to see rather more data before making up his mind and did not directly address when he thought rates would rise.

"It's going to depend critically on how the economy performs over the summer and through the autumn," he said.

"We do think that there's a scope for the economy to grow a little further before we have to start the gradual process of normalisation. That's going to depend on how fast growth is in the second, third and fourth quarters," he said.

Earlier on Monday, economists at investment bank Morgan Stanley (Shenzhen: 002588.SZ - news) brought forward their call on when rates would rise from their record-low 0.5 percent, to the first quarter of 2015.

BROADER GROWTH

The BoE forecasts the economy will grow 3.4 percent this year, its fastest rate since the financial crisis, but Governor Mark Carney has said he wants the expansion to rely less heavily on consumer demand before he raises interest rates.

The economy is still a fraction smaller than before the financial crisis, and the BoE has said that there is spare capacity equivalent to 1.0-1.5 percent of gross domestic product that it wants to be largely used up before it raises rates.

But some business surveys already show that firms are operating at full capacity and struggling to find staff, and house prices are rising at their fastest rate since the financial crisis, prompting fears of a bubble.

However, the BoE has said that raising interest rates is not its first line of defence against an out-of-control housing market and that it would try other lending curbs first.

"Worries about the housing market I think need to be kept in some sort of perspective," McCafferty said.

The BoE is due to judge in September whether to rein in a government scheme, Help to Buy, which widens access to mortgage finance to home-buyers unable to pay large deposits.

McCafferty - who is not directly involved in that decision - said the scheme was too small for now to cause a house-price bubble, though there could be benefits in limiting it if it prevented irresponsible lending.

"If we need to therefore regulate Help to Buy ... just to take the edge off some of the price rises we've seen, that may be no bad thing. But I think we have to put everything into proportion," he said. (Reporting by David Milliken and Ana Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by Larry King)