PRIME Minister David Cameron yesterday pledged action to “turn around” the lives of an estimated 810 troubled Oxfordshire families whose behaviour costs taxpayers an estimated £60m each year.

The Witney MP announced that £450m would be spent on a new cross-government drive to tackle the behaviour of 120,000 families across the country whose anti-social behaviour, truancy, drug use or criminality drain £9bn of Government resources each year.

Mr Cameron said: “Our heart tells us we can’t just stand by while people live these lives and cause others so much misery. Our head tells us we can’t afford to keep footing the monumental bills for social failure.

“So we have got to take action to turn troubled families around.

“This immense task will take new ways of thinking, committed local action, flexibility and perseverance.

“But I know that it’s a task we can’t shirk.”

The Government will offer local authorities up to 40 per cent of the cost of dealing with troubled families on a payments-by-results basis, encouraging councils and their partners to get children back in school, cut crime, find work for parents and reduce costs to taxpayers.