Two members of Wandsworth Council staff took a four day trip to Cannes at the expense of private developers, it has been revealed.

The staff were representing the Nine Elms Vauxhall Partnership for Wandsworth and Lambeth councils in France for the MIPIM conference, an international property development conference.

In total, the trip cost £27,130, including hotels, exhibition space and marketing materials.

March 2015: Wandsworth Council leader Ravi Govindia's trip to Cannes paid for by developers

Simon Hogg, the Labour councillor who uncovered the figures, said: "Wandsworth is under the spell of large property developers and their lobbyists.

"Last year property developers paid £27,000 for the Tory council leader to go to the French Riviera and they've made a similar investment this year.

"The planning system is broken. The council is approving more and more blocks of hugely expensive flats with zero social housing. Local families are frustrated because the system doesn't deliver homes they can rent or buy. They get angry when they realise how much it benefits property developers and overseas investors.

"Wandsworth council behaves like a property empire with a sideline in local government."

Wandsworth Council explained that the trip did not cost the taxpayer any money and that staff stayed in "budget" hotels.

Council leader Ravi Govindia said: "Councils have to battle for every penny of inward investment if they want to deliver the new affordable homes and jobs their residents need. That is exactly why over a dozen of London’s local authorities went to the MIPIM conference this year including Tory councils like Wandsworth and Labour councils like Ealing, Haringey, Hounslow, Croydon and Waltham Forest.

"Unfortunately some backward looking councillors like Mr Hogg think it’s somehow wrong to try and bring new investment to London and want us to forgo the new affordable homes, schools, health centres and jobs that come with it.

"It’s a very regressive attitude which even members of his own political party can’t agree with."