FOREIGNERS must be stopped from buying UK homes with plundered or laundered cash as part of a global effort to defeat corruption, David Cameron has said.

Mr Cameron has vowed to expose the use of anonymous shell companies to buy luxury UK properties – often in London.

Speaking in Singapore, he said the UK must not become a safe haven for corrupt money from around the world.

He said the international community must tackle the cancer of corruption.

Mr Cameron is on a four-day tour of South East Asia.

On Monday he announced the UK and Indonesia had agreed measures to counter the shared enemy of Islamic State extremism.

Later in the trip he will travel to Malaysia and Vietnam.

He has been accompanied by 31 British business leaders in an attempt to drum up trade with the UK and has also discussed the fight against terrorism with his foreign counterparts. Describing corruption as the enemy of progress, he called for a global effort to tackle it, saying the world has looked the other way for too long.

A 2014 report by anti-poverty organisation One said an estimated $1 trillion (£600bn) a year was being taken out of poor countries because of corruption, warning of the use of phantom firms and money laundering.

And last week the National Crime Agency said foreign criminals were pushing up house prices in the UK by laundering billions of pounds through the purchase of expensive properties.

In his speech, Mr Cameron said properties in the UK, particularly in the London, are being bought by people overseas through anonymous shell companies, some with plundered or laundered cash.

Shell companies are non-trading companies that serve a particular purpose for their owners.

More than 100,000 UK property titles are registered to overseas companies, with more than 36,000 properties in London owned by offshore firms.

Mr Cameron said there should be no place for dirty money.

About £122bn of property in England and Wales is owned by offshore companies.

The government is to publish Land Registry data later this year, setting out which foreign companies own land and property in England and Wales.

It will also consider forcing a foreign company bidding for a government contract to publicly state who really owns it.

“There is no place for dirty money in Britain," Mr Cameron said.

"Indeed, there should no place for dirty money anywhere.”

Welcoming the pledge, Laura Taylor, the head of advocacy at Christian Aid, said: “Countering corruption is of fundamental importance in the fight against global poverty because of its impact on developing countries.”

Diane Sheard, who is the UK director of the One Campaign, said: “Lifting this veil of secrecy will help developing countries to identify and recover these funds, which should be spent on health and education.

“We hope that making information public about foreign companies that own property in the UK will deter money-launderers from doing business here.”

And Robert Palmer, head of the money-laundering campaign at the charity Global Witness, said: “London is a very attractive destination for very wealthy people, including corrupt officials who have looted their state coffers.”

He added: “What the Prime Minister has announced today is a really good step forward.”