In an interview for the London Summit website Caroline Flint, the Foreign Office Minister for Europe, addressed the issues that ordinary working families want to see the London Summit tackle on 2 April.

Phil Thornton, an editor of the Summit website, began by asking whether the man in the woman in the street would see any benefit from the Summit – particularly when it came to stemming the rise in unemployment.

The Minister answered with an emphatic yes. She said it would tackle three key areas: stabilising the banking system, reform the financial system and stimulating economy growth. She said: 'This all linked to the jobs that people are in now but also where people have lost work and how we make sure we bring employment back to get people back into work to support their families.'

She said that resolving the liquidity problem was vital as shortage of finance makes it harder for businesses to retain workers. 'The vast majority of people in the UK are employed by a small- or medium-sized business so we have managed to get agreement through the European Investment Bank for funds that small businesses can apply to get themselves going.'

Will the Summit be able to assuage the great anger that many people feel at the bankers who contributed to the crisis, Phil Thornton asked.  And can people really influence the debate?

People are right to be angry, Ms Flint said. 'You can be surrounded by so-called experts in banks but sometimes it is just about asking the obvious questions,' she said. The London Summit was essential to decide what sort of reform and regulations should be put in place. 'I really do hope that after the Summit we can make sure that in language we can understand we can see that these world leaders are working together to find some solutions for the future.'

The Minister said that the UK Government was keen to hear people’s views through online opportunities such as londonsummit.gov.uk and YouTube. 'In the month leading up the Summit we will be looking to see how we can work with non-governmental organisations to have their input as well.'

Finally, Phil Thornton asked how people in non-G20 countries could make their views known and posed a question from someone who used the 'Ask a Minister' form on the website wanting to know whether the money spent on the Summit could be better spent on housing.

Ms Flint said ministers knew it was vital that rich countries must not 'take their eye off the ball' when it comes to supporting poor countries. 'We must not lose sight of those countries. We have been doing a lot of work in recent years and it would be terrible if all that progress was lost.'

Summits are complicated projects to organise but ultimately on major issues such as this, it is necessary to get the 'movers and shakers' to meet face-to-face and debate the issues in a visible way. On the cost of the summit she said: 'You can’t bake a cake without cracking a few eggs'. 'The costs of having the summit are far outweighed by the risks involved in not having it at all.'