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Large councils in the North and Midlands are stepping up the fight against antisocial behaviour by establishing teams to tackle nuisance by private tenants and owner-occupiers.

At least five local authorities are challenging private sector residents as part of their efforts to deal with low demand, which is frequently associated with antisocial behaviour.

Manchester and Birmingham councils are hoping to extend their antisocial behaviour powers to private-sector housing. The other councils are understood to be Leeds, Middlesbrough and Gateshead.

Manchester already has antisocial behaviour officers who work across both social and private housing.

However, the council is understood to be working on plans to set up a specific team dedicated to private housing. Funding is being sought from various sources, including the city's market renewal pathfinder.

Birmingham, which established a centralised antisocial behaviour unit last week, hopes to be able to target nuisance residents – including homeowners – in the next six months.

The team is funded through the housing revenue account but it is hoped that other revenue sources, such as the neighbourhood renewal fund, could finance an expansion.

Ian McGibbon, manager of Birmingham's antisocial behaviour unit, said extending the protection to all residents could help an area remain an attractive place to live.

He added: "Antisocial behaviour can occur anywhere. We intend to make the full range of solutions available across housing tenure."

Manchester and Birmingham will follow local authorities such as Leeds and Gateshead in taking a broader view of antisocial behaviour.

Leeds has been tackling antisocial behaviour in private sector housing since February this year, and has set up a call centre to take antisocial behaviour complaints from all city residents.

Since then, nine of the 35 antisocial behaviour orders granted in the city have been related to private-sector housing.

Sam Warmington, antisocial behaviour unit coordinator, said: "The council believes that people in all areas have the right to a quiet life, and the service has been made available to all."

Funding for the scheme has been provided by the council as well as the single regeneration budget and neighbourhood renewal fund.

Gateshead has been working across tenure as part of its approach to tackle low demand since 1999.

n The government has introduced an amendment to the Antisocial Behaviour Bill that would widen the scope of housing injunctions against tenants.

The change will mean that social landlords need only prove that nuisance behaviour was "capable" of causing harm – rather than proving actual harm – in order to obtain an injunction against a tenant.

The government has this week denied reports it plans to extend powers to seize crack houses to cover cannabis users as well.