Almost all the households targeted in the government's Troubled Families programme have been helped so far, communities secretary Eric Pickles has announced.
He said the scheme launched in December 2011 had now helped turn around the lives of more than 85,000 of the hardest to help households.
More than 99% of families the prime minister pledged to support are now being actively worked with, and councils have had payments-by-results made for over two-thirds of their families.
Pickles said this meant that in 85,303 troubled families in England children have been back in school for a year when they were previously truant or excluded, youth crime and anti-social behaviour has been cut or an adult in the home has moved off benefits and into work.
He praised Bristol, which has turned around all 1,355 of its troubled families and Nottingham which he said had done the same with 1,200 households. Liverpool has helped 1,987 of the 2,105 it promised to get back on track.
Pickles said: ‘The Troubled Families programme demonstrates exactly what our long-term economic plan means for people.
‘New opportunities for families to turn their lives around and make something of themselves, more economic security for local communities blighted by worklessness and more economic stability for taxpayers, as we reduce the bills for social failure and get this country living within its means.’
