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Leading fashion retailers are continuing to "hoodwink" British consumers over conditions that workers in overseas garment factories face, a new report has claimed.

The study, published on the eve of London Fashion Week, says that garment workers across the world are "mired in a poverty trap", while fashion executives and supermodels are living "in excess of seven-figure salaries".

Anti-poverty charity War on Want and the anti-sweatshop coalition Labour Behind the Label asked 34 UK retailers to update them on progress they have made over the past year to address the problem.

They claim that 12 companies, including BHS, Mothercare and River Island, snubbed their survey and made "no reasonable information available on the living wage or other labour rights issues" related to the production of their clothing.

Only three retailers, Gap, New Look and Next, were said to have accepted the need for a significant improvement in wages and working conditions for overseas garment workers.

The report, Let's Clean Up Fashion, claims that garment employees in Bangladesh earn on average just seven per cent of a UK living wage, even when cheaper living costs there are taken into account. In India, garment workers are said to earn just nine per cent of a UK living wage, while in China and Vietnam they earn 11 per cent and in Thailand 14 per cent.

Meanwhile the study singles out some retailers for giving "huge rewards" to top executives and models that advertise their clothing in contrast to the low wages that are paid to those who produce the garments.

According to the report a worker in Mauritius making clothes for Topshop owner Acardia would need to work for almost 4,000 years to gain the reported £3 million supermodel Kate Moss received for designing a range for the fashion chain.

In addition it is claimed that the salary and bonuses received by Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy could pay the annual wages of more than 25,000 Bangladeshi garment employees who supply the supermarket group with clothing.

"This report exposes retailers' empty rhetoric on ethical treatment for workers who make their clothes, but remain trapped in poverty," said Simon McRae, senior campaigns officer for War on Want.

"The British government must introduce regulation to stop UK companies exploiting overseas workers," he added.