Tempers ran high at the town hall after the borough's London Assembly member described social rented housing as "housing for riff-raff".

The Conservative LA member for South West London, Tony Arbour, made the comment at a meeting to debate Richmond Council's bid to build social housing on a number of borough plots and remove the requirement from two other "prime" sites set for development.

He said: "The council has very strong policies on affordable housing - it does not say they apply to everyone except the council.

"I do not believe, for one moment, that if a private owner came along and said, I do not want to have any riff-raff on this site, but I will provide the housing for the riff raff somewhere else in the borough,' this would be acceptable."

Coun Brian Miller, said during the finance and overview strategy meeting that he found the comment "deeply insulting". He added: "I grew up in social housing - I am very very angry."

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has also joined the fray. He said: "Tony Arbour's comment is a direct insult to the hundreds of thousands of Londoners who live in social housing," he said.

Mr Livingstone also said Mr Arbour has been critical of the mayor's target that 50 per cent of all new homes should be affordable. Last month, Mr Arbour attacked the target saying, "London needs realistic targets, not just slogans".

Liberal Democrat candidate for the LA seat, Stephen Knight, who was also at the meeting said: "Tony Arbour's remarks are quite simply offensive to the thousands of residents across his constituency who live in social rented housing."

But Mr Arbour has fought back saying his words have been "taken out of context". He added: "These claims about me are libellous and without foundation. I utterly refute the allegation that I said social housing is for riff raff.

"What I said was: were Richmond Council, in not ensuring that there was provision for social housing in a particular development, taking the view that social housing was for riff raff?"

Richmond Council plan to remove the social housing requirement for sites at Twickenham Riverside and Friars car park in Richmond in order to attract developers.

Council officers say the move is necessary if a planned community River Centre on the Twickenham site is to be viable and if subsequent development is to avoid being unacceptably dense. They also claim that the linked site strategy will enable more social housing to be built.