British Prime Minister David Cameron has backed a call to withdraw welfare benefits from rioters as a London council became the first to begin evicting a tenant whose son faces unrest charges.

Cameron said on Friday people who "loot and pillage their own community" should no longer be allowed to live in social housing, reflecting the tough line he has taken over four nights of violence in London, Manchester and Birmingham.

"Obviously, that will mean they've got to be housed somewhere else - they'll have to find housing in the private sector - and that will be tougher for them, but they should have thought of that before they started burgling," he said.

As he spoke, Wandsworth Council in south London said it had served one of its housing tenants with an eviction notice after the tenant's son was charged in court over disturbances in nearby Clapham Junction on Monday night.