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Stirling Council has put a ban on evicting its tenants for rent arrears.

In the first such move in Scotland Alasdair MacPherson, executive portfolio holder for housing strategy at the Scottish council, said evictions of this sort were ‘draconian’, and needed to be ‘confined to the history books’.

‘In essence we are punishing people for being poor. The dehumanising practice of throwing people out of social housing in these circumstances is no longer acceptable, especially in this economic climate,’ he added.

Stirling evicted 23 tenants last year for falling behind on their rent. According to homelessness charity Shelter 3,600 social tenants were evicted across Scotland in 2007/08 for the same reason.

Mr MacPherson insisted the council would be able to find other ways to tackle problem tenants.

But Kenny Simpson, head of housing at East Dunbartonshire council, said eviction was an important last resort: ‘The wider community expects us not to be subsidising [non-paying tenants], we expect people to pay their own way. If there is a benefit system, why should anyone get into such a situation?’

The eviction ban is the first of its kind in Scotland, according to Shelter Scotland. Graeme Brown, director of the homelessness charity, said he hoped other councils and housing associations would follow suit.