Communities secretary Eric Pickles has applauded council efforts to support almost 53,000 of England’s most troubled families over the past two years.

Speaking at the Local Government Association conference in Bournemouth, Pickles revealed the Government programme had ‘turned around’ 52,833 families since April 2012.

‘To have helped so many families so quickly is testament to the hard work and determination of troubled families teams across the country,’ he said.

The communities secretary pointed to authorities such as Wakefield, which has ‘turned around’ around 85% out of its 930 troubled families.

But he added local authorities had been helping households ‘in every corner of the country’.

In a wide ranging speech to conference delegates – which included quotes from book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Pickles said local government had ‘coped remarkably well’ in what he termed ‘this challenging time’.

Yet the communities secretary pushed town halls to do more on cost cutting, adding: ‘Councils are still spending £100bn a year. There is still a great deal of best practice to show how efficiency savings can be made and we still have only scratched the surface by embracing better procurement, cutting fraud and increasing joint working.’