The total cost of the two days of rioting which swept the West Midlands in August could surpass £25 million for the region's police and businesses.

More than 340 claims – totalling £5.4 million – have been made to West Midlands Police Authority under the Riot (Damages) Act 1886 over vandalism and theft as yobs smashed up shops and stole valuables during unprecedented scenes of looting.

A Government U-turn means the Home Office has only agreed to cover uninsured losses estimated at £253,861, leaving the Authority to find the remaining cash.

And a report this week to the Authority revealed it was forced to spend £50,000 to bring in external loss adjusters to “advise on certain higher value and/or complex claims”.

The bill comes at a time West Midlands Police has to find £126 million in savings over four years as part of Government budget cuts that will see the loss of about 2,200 members of staff.

West Midlands Chief Constable Chris Sims has already estimated the final bill for restoring order and bringing the perpetrators to justice could hit £12 million.

That includes the cost of policing the riots and the three investigations that have followed; identifying rioters who trashed shops across the region; catching those behind the deaths of Haroon Jahan, 21, and brothers Shahzad Ali, 30, and Abdul Musavir, 31, who were run down in Winson Green; and the shooting at police officers outside the Bartons Arms pub, Newtown.

Meanwhile, business leaders have already predicted the riots in Birmingham alone cost firms at least £7 million in lost takings after the city was turned into a “ghost town” abandoned by shoppers and diners too scared to leave their homes.

Together, it means the two days of trouble is estimated to have cost close to £25 million.

However, the true cost could be higher as some businesses said they had taken far more than a 50 per cent hit after diners and shoppers completely abandoned the city centre and surrounding areas because of violent scenes.

Some businesses said it took longer than they expected for shoppers to return in the normal numbers.

Meanwhile, national research found that more than a third of youngsters involved in this summer’s riots had been excluded from school at some point in the last year.

Those involved in the looting and violence which swept through English cities in August were younger, poorer, involved in more trouble and achieved lower grades than average, the detailed analysis of the histories of those charged over the disturbances showed.