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| Eric Pickles: 105,000 troubled families' lives turned round | Eric Pickles: 105,000 troubled families' lives turned round |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Communities Secretary Eric Pickles says 105,000 troubled families targeted by a government scheme have had their lives "turned around". | |
| Mr Pickles told the House of Commons the Troubled Families Programme had targeted 120,000 families since 2010. | Mr Pickles told the House of Commons the Troubled Families Programme had targeted 120,000 families since 2010. |
| He said an extra £200m would be provided to extend the scheme to 400,000 more families between 2015-20. | He said an extra £200m would be provided to extend the scheme to 400,000 more families between 2015-20. |
| Labour said it supported the "important work" of the programme and wanted it to go from "strength to strength". | |
| Shadow communities and local government secretary Hilary Benn said the party would continue the work of the scheme if it wins the general election in May. | Shadow communities and local government secretary Hilary Benn said the party would continue the work of the scheme if it wins the general election in May. |
| The Troubled Families Programme pays councils to work directly with a family to deal with their varied problems, including worklessness and truancy, rather than lots of different agencies working with each aspect of the families' troubles. | |
| 'Tough love' | |
| The aims were to cut anti-social behaviour, ensure truanting children were back in school and getting parents back into jobs, Mr Pickles said. | |
| Updating MPs on the work of the programme, he said: "Today, with great pride, I can announced to the House that 90% of the families we've promised to help have achieved these outcomes. | |
| "More than 105,000 have had their lives turned around and there is still three months of the programme left to run." | |
| He said the scheme had made a "real difference" to people's lives, and worked for taxpayers as well as the families involved. | |
| "It's tough love and practical help from people who take a no-nonsense, persistent approach, for people who won't go away, give up, who won't be put off by missed answers or unanswered doors," he told MPs. | |
| Mr Pickles praised front-line workers for their "tireless" efforts and congratulated the families who "grasped the opportunity to end a dysfunctional and negative way of life and offer their children a better future". | |
| 'More caring' | |
| He said the programme showed what could be achieved with co-operation between central and local government, and their partner public services. | |
| Responding to the statement, Mr Benn said: "We support....this important work and, as you have generously acknowledged, the last Labour government started the family intervention project and a future Labour government would want to see this work continue and go from strength to strength." | |
| He noted that Labour and some local authorities had pushed for the scheme's remit to be broadened, and welcomed the fact that the government made the necessary changes. | |
| But Mr Benn raised concerns about the impact of cuts to local authority budget cuts in the most deprived communities and housing benefit changes. | |
| Mr Pickles told him that before the troubled families programme was set up "we were throwing money at this problem and it was achieving precisely nothing". | |
| He said of the scheme: "It so happens it is cheaper but it's actually better. It's more caring, we're not throwing people away. We're not condemning them to a life on benefits." |