Birmingham is pressing ahead with plans to evict tenants who were involved in last week’s riots.

Coun John Lines, cabinet member for housing, said he was “poised” to move in and remove anyone convicted of looting or violent disorder.

And he also warned the tough action would extend to those living in housing association properties as well.

Last week Birmingham became the first local authority to announce it would evict looters and rioters from council-owned properties.

But Coun Lines said it had had to hold fire on its plans while awaiting for back up from central government.

He said that had now come after the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles had spoken out publicly and promised councils new powers, putting them in a stronger position.

Coun Lines said: “If they [council tenants] have stolen goods and have taken them back to their property, then they are using their council house for illegal purposes, which is a clear breach of their tenancy.

“But if they are involved in riots and do not have property in their homes then it is less clear cut and before we tackle them we need the tools from central Government.

“Eric Pickles told us he is going to look at current tenancy agreements, and this will include registered social landlords (RSLs), as well as local authorities.

“What I’m waiting for is a clear picture of what tools the Government is going to give me to carry out the policy.

“We welcome any tools from the Government that will help us address criminal activities.”

He added the council would not hesitate to be tough.

“We have 65,000 council houses and hundreds of these looters will be going before the courts, so I am quite positive that many of these criminals will be council tenants.

“There will be no soft option from me.

“I have thousands of decent law-abiding families queuing up for council houses and will waste no time getting rid of these scum of the Earth.”