Crackdown on bad tenants misses point, claims Edie

City housing convener Paul Edie branded the proposals, which include making it easier to evict tenants for antisocial behaviour, “eye-catching, populist initiatives” which would be difficult to implement.

He said: “Just evicting people doesn’t solve the problem. All you’re doing is shifting it somewhere else and we would have a responsibility to rehouse these tenants.

“We know from painful experience what you have to do is work with people who are committing antisocial behaviour and get them to reform.”

The government wants to change the law so councils and housing associations could take previous antisocial behaviour into account when allocating homes. Antisocial tenants could lose their tenancy rights and the eviction process would be simplified.