Achieving a consensus among a disparate group about the actions necessary to help the recovery of the UK economy – and Western economies in general – might seem a tall order. But a leading financier, the chief executive of one of Britain’s largest corporates, a bankers’ champion, the editor and the business editor of The Times – all platform speakers at The Times debate – managed to reach general agreement on what should be done.

After two decades of overspending they believe it is essential to rebuild a savings culture in the West and to ensure that tighter controls of the financial institutions do not hamper investment. The journalists, in particular, wanted greater transparency in the boardroom and more power and resources for nonexecutive directors.

Ian Livingston, chief executive of BT, said: “We all have to get used to the fact that Western economies were living beyond their means. We have to understand that the West is going to be poorer and we must pray that the East becomes more consumption orientated because their savings ratio is too high. What is critical is a balance between what is happening in Brazil and the East and what is happening in the West. The West has got it wrong and we have to make adjustments.”

David Mayhew, chairman of J P Morgan Cazenove, agreed that we are going to have to pay more for money in future, money which would have to be funded from savings. That would reduce consumption but there is little option. He continued: “The Government needs to encourage people to save with better tax shelters, which is not unprecedented – it used to happen with mortgages. People must be able to feel that if they save money, it is going to be there on the day they want it. There is a belief that if you save £1 you will not get £1 when you need it.”

At the same time, he said, we must get the banks lending again but we must expect both companies and banks to run on more prudent ratios. He argued that the integration of retail and investment banking has led to a more vigorous lending policy and disputed the need to separate them, a move demanded again by Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, in his annual Mansion House speech last week.

Mayhew said: “There is a fantastic pool of talent in London. I am convinced that people are attracted by the openness of what is happening in London. We have all the opportunities if we remain totally competitive and to be totally competitive requires a government that recognises this attractiveness.”

Angela Knight, chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association, said: “We need to build our new controls, new regulatory structures not out of mistakes but from the many who are managing a historically difficult time reasonably well. What they have done right is what we need to look at – and not what went before.

“I want a balance of stability, a balance of being able to finance UK plc, externally via exports and financial services, as well as internally, then we will get the right result. But if you say you want to add capital liquidity, leverage ratio and a penalty on top, then we will not get to the right outcome. We need change done from clear logic, not from emotion.

“I have to deal every day with initiatives from government, initiatives from regulators, changes from Europe, from international standard setters. I would like to put them all in the same room and lock the door without any food and water until they come to one single agreement instead of several different agreements.”

Tackling the bulls in the boardroom is a priority for James Harding, the editor of The Times. He said: “If we believe the real problem was not regulation but was about judgment, do we believe that boards of directors commonly work? Is there a need to have some kind of reputational liability for members of boards so that there is an incentive to stand up and criticise – or at least stand in the way of or comment on – decisions that put the future stability of large financial institutions at risk.

“Minutes of board meetings should be published ten years after they are held so that everybody around the table knows that, at some point in their lives, they will be scrutinised for what they did and did not say.”

David Wighton, business editor, added that board members and regulators should be forced to go out and seek opinions that challenge their consensus thinking and that nonexecutive directors be provided with more money to get independent advice.

Livingston summed up the feeling of most in the hall: “All of us need to go out and remind people that while capitalism has its flaws, it may be the least worst form of market economy. It is because of capitalism and globalisation that so many millions of people around the world are eating two meals a day.”