It will be the first time the London mayor has attended Mipim in Cannes, reports Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter

Sadiq Khan (inset, credit LDRS) is attending Mipim in Cannes, branded as “the world’s property market” (credit **Mos.ru** via Wikimedia Commons)

Sir Sadiq Khan is set to attend the “world’s leading real estate event” on the French Riviera.

The BBC reports that the London mayor will in March join the annual Mipim conference at Cannes.

Previous mayors Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone were both regular attendees at the four-day event, but Khan has never gone before – and has instead tended to send one of his deputies.

The conference offers the chance to network with some of the world’s biggest property developers and to discuss investment opportunities in London and other global cities.

It comes after City Hall revealed last week that Khan would be ending his long-standing opposition to Green Belt development in London.

City Hall said it had no comment on the BBC’s report. Khan joining the event for the first time could however be read as a demonstration of his commitment to the Labour government’s agenda of “kickstarting economic growth”, with ministers placing a strong focus on house-building to unlock that growth.

As of the end of last year, Khan was thought to have made 18 foreign trips as mayor. With his trip to Poland this week accounted for, travelling to Cannes would mark his 20th official trip abroad. He is also planning to travel to Africa soon. Khan points out that his predecessor, Johnson, made 37 international visits in total.

Last year’s MIPIM conference was attended by Jules Pipe, London’s deputy mayor for planning and regeneration, where he was gifted three dinners worth almost £550.

According to his register of gifts and hospitality, the deputy mayor was served two dinners on consecutive nights which were together worth £243, hosted by the business lobbying group BusinessLDN. He participated in a Q&A session at the first of those dinners and gave a speech at the second.

The following night, he spoke at a third dinner hosted by the Berkeley Group, a major British developer. The meal was served at La Villa Archange – a two-Michelin star restaurant – and was worth about £300.

Mipim is short for Le Marché International des Professionnels de l’immobilier, or The International Market for Real Estate Professionals.

Speaking at the conference in 2014, then-mayor Johnson joked that Mipim could in fact be short for ‘May I push you in the Med?’ or ‘Meet me in the pool in a minute?’, given the amount of lobbying that takes place there. He declared however that, to his mind, it stands for ‘Making important property investments for millions of Londoners on modest incomes’.

Mipim’s organisers boast that the event is attended each year by over 20,000 delegates from 90 countries, who include among them investors managing a total of €4trillion in assets. Tickets to attend the event start at €870 euros, with more premium levels of access offered at prices of up to €3,190.

This year’s conference will be opened by Mario Draghi, the former Italian prime minister and European Central Bank president.

Speakers from local government in the UK will include Hounslow Council’s Labour leader Shantanu Rajawat, Liverpool City Council’s Labour leader Liam Robinson, and Belfast City Council’s chief executive, John Walsh.

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