The home secretary has pledged to fight the "scourge" of anti-social behaviour.

Announcing plans which will see beggars criminalised and drunks fined, David Blunkett set himself on a collision course with civil rights campaigners.

Speaking in the Commons he warned that "rights and responsibilities" must go hand in hand.

The white paper comes as the government vows to tackle the "yob culture".

"Too often, the lives of the law-abiding majority in a community are made a misery by the irresponsibility, disrespect and loutishness of a selfish minority," he told MPs.

"Anti-social behaviour can undermine people's health and destroy family life.

"It can also hold back the regeneration of disadvantaged communities, creating an environment in which crime can take hold.

"Where enforcement is poor and anti-social behaviour goes unpunished, lawlessness grows and criminals know they can get away with it.

"We need a fundamental culture change in our society, where we take pride in our communities and challenge those who try to damage them."

The white paper sets out proposals for dealing with problems such as noisy neighbours - who he described as a "blight on society".

It also tackles graffiti, drunken behaviour and fly tipping.

Trouble-making tenants will have their right to housing benefit removed and rogue private landlords will have their payments cut.

Unaccompanied children out late at night will be returned home and their parents fined under the new plans.

Environmental health officers will get powers to close pubs and nightclubs found to be causing a nuisance.

And new offences to combat begging are included in the policy blueprint.

With local elections looming the government wants to show its domestic focus has not been lost because of the problems in Iraq.

But Oliver Letwin questioned whether the new laws would be effectively policed. "Will the new crackdown on crack be effective if the police are overstretched?" the shadow home secretary asked.

"I fear that in the absence of police on our streets, the home secretary will find the vast new range of fines will do no more than mask his failures."

For the Liberal Democrats, Simon Hughes called for more resources and a community-led approach to anti-social behaviour problems.

"What we need isn't more legislation it's more people; more police, more community wardens," he said.

Hughes questioned the short timescale set aside for the white paper.

He claimed the home secretary was trying to boost Labour's local election campaign.

"Isn't the reality that this is about dressing the window for a local election in May to hide his own failures?"

But the home secretary won support from labour's backbenchers.

"We have to defeat the worst yob culture which I think is our greatest inheritance from the Thatcher decade," said home affairs committee chairman Chris Mullin.

Civil rights campaigners warned that a lack of resources and a failure to implement current laws were the real problem.

"Once again, the government is throwing the statute book at real social problems, ignoring the awkward truth that resources, not ill-conceived new laws, are almost always the bigger issue," said John Wadham, director of Liberty.

"On-the-spot fines were a bad idea for adults; they will be no better for 10-year-old children. It lumps together potentially serious criminal offences that should be a matter for the police with more trivial offences.

Shelter, the charity which campaigns for homeless people, said the existing laws on begging are tough enough.

"We agree that aggressive or threatening behaviour in public spaces is unacceptable but penalties already exist to tackle this problem with anti social behaviour orders and the Public Order Act 1995 - it is unnecessary to introduce further legislation," said spokesman Ben Jackson.

"It is true that some people who sleep on the streets and beg have an alcohol or drug dependency problem.

"However, rather than criminalising them, the government should ensure more support services are available to homeless people and they get the help they need."