Communities secretary Eric Pickles has insisted the Government's troubled families programme is 'performing strongly'.

Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Pickles highlighted figures that showed, two years into the three-year programme, more than 97,000 of the 120,000 families targeted were being worked with.

Mr Pickles also said nearly 40,000 families had 'already been turned around'.

But Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden, Siobhain McDonagh questioned the impact of temporary accommodation on troubled families.

She said: 'In my part of south London and, I am sure, in other parts of London and the south-east, large numbers of people are being placed in temporary accommodation as a result of eviction, some of which is quite distant from their home borough.

'As I see them leave, I am troubled about the future for their children.'