Thirteen tenants evicted from Oxford council houses for rent arrears are being treated as if they deliberately made themselves homeless.

In a new get-tough policy to reduce the £5.75m owed to Oxford City Council, families who do not pay their rent when capable of doing so are not being rehoused by the local authority.

All 13 evicted tenants each owed in excess of £3,000. None of the recently evicted tenants was on benefits or considered vulnerable.

Oxford City Council spokesman Zoe Howard warned that "the rope is tightening" on people who try to avoid paying.

She said: "We're not a soft touch. In most cases, if tenants are evicted because of non-payment of rent, they will be treated as if they've deliberately made themselves homeless.

"It could be that they would be put up in emergency accommodation for 28 days to give them a chance to find somewhere in the private sector, but that would be the limit of our involvement.

"If there are children involved, then the families are referred to social services.

"Once evicted, if a family applies to be accepted back on to the council housing waiting list, all arrears have to be paid."

Ten per cent of the £5,769,885 rent debt is owed by just 115 people. But the latest evictions did not include an asylum seeker who owed the council £53,228 -- the biggest outstanding debt and a case complicated by benefit claims. It also did not include four tenants each owing £20,500 or another owing £11,114.

Tenants refusing to pay, but who have assets, will have bankruptcy proceedings started against them.

Rent team manager Shami Scholes said: "We cannot stress enough how important it is for council tenants to make paying rent their top priority."