David Cameron faced questions over whether he has found enough Whitehall cash to effectively help the 120,000 problem families said to cost nearly £8bn in state support.
Cameron announced £448m of funding and said he hoped a further £675m would be advanced by local councils over the next three years.
The cash from Whitehall is designed to fund caseworkers to help tackle deep-seated problems faced by "chaotic families", and co-ordinate the often overlapping work of local agencies.
Local councils will not receive the £448m cash until they can show Louise Casey – the new "troubled families tsar" – that their interventions have cut truancy, antisocial behaviour or addiction.
The scheme is formally voluntary, but if a family refuses to co-operate, councils already have the powers to evict tenants, take children into care or issue antisocial behaviour orders.
The proposals are largely built on ideas introduced by Tony Blair and then expanded by Gordon Brown.
Cameron claimed in his speech that Labour's approach had failed, but the research he published on the effectiveness of family intervention projects derives from ideas developed by Casey and ministers during the Labour years.
Cameron was urged to expand the Labour scheme by the Downing Street permanent secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood. The cash is being drawn from existing budgets held by the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the Home Office, the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions.
The success of the scheme will largely depend on whether Casey, one of the most hands-on and blunt-speaking civil servants, can drive councils to take the issue seriously.
She said: "This money should incentivise local authorities, people from health, police, to get a grip of what is happening locally. Part of getting a grip is putting in some money.
"We all need to show commitment and the way you do that is by putting some money on the table, and if you put money on the table, you will get savings.
"At the moment we spend an awful lot of money in a reactive crisis way. The financial climate is all the more reason we help these families now."
Studies published on Thursday by the DCLG show encouraging results from the projects attempted between February 2007 and March 2011.
Interventions typically last a year. Data on the whereabouts of these troubled families facing multiple problems is four years out of date out of date, and will be updated by February.
Cameron said: "We need to provide leadership at the top, action in local authorities and results on the ground. We're not prescribing a single response. But we are demanding results from councils in return for support.
"For many of the most troubled families, there will be a family worker – a single point of contact for the first time for particular families, working out what the family needs, where the waste is and lining up the right services at the right time.
"When the front door opens and the worker goes in, they will see the family as a whole and get a plan of action together, agreed with the family.
"This will often be basic, practical things that are the building blocks of an orderly home and a responsible life. These things don't always cost a lot but they make all the difference. And they will get on top of the services, sorting out – and sometimes fending off – the 28 or more different state services that come calling at the door.
"Not a string of well-meaning, disconnected officials who end up treating the symptoms and not the causes.
"But a clear hard-headed recognition of how the family is going wrong — and what the family members themselves can do to take responsibility."
Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: "Improving lives for families and residents is at the heart of what councils do and closer working between public sector agencies like job centres, schools, police, probation officers and social services locally will get better results and cost less.
"It is great news that the money announced today will go to local areas to build on much excellent work already under way. We must ensure this support gets to where it is most needed and is not tied up in endless bureaucracy and form filling.
"We are pleased government has recognised the need for all departments to work much more closely with councils at a local level. This is vital to help us overcome historic hurdles which have stood in the way of the huge savings and greater local accountability this co-ordinated approach can deliver."
Former Labour minister David Blunkett said: "The idea of co-ordinating all resources going into families where there has been a history of worklessness, a variety of forms of dysfunctionality, or troubled youngsters, makes absolute sense.
"However, it is critically important that what is delivered is genuinely a co-ordination of the various streams of funding that are currently available as well as the extra money – above all that there is consistency and quality. My worry is that with a substantial cutback in the local Sure Start programmes, a further reduction in investment in the family intervention programmes, and regrettably in child and adolescent mental health investment, we're taking with one hand while giving with the other."
Barnardo's chief executive, Anne Marie Carrie, said: "We are glad to see the government has acted to support the most troubled families.
"Grassroots services that help prevent vulnerable children and families from getting into difficulties are key to making sure we don't store up problems for society in the future.
"The voluntary sector has an important role to play in reaching out to families with multiple needs, particularly as they may feel that accepting help from them is less stigmatising."
Enver Solomon, director of policy at the Children's Society, said: "Intensive family support co-ordinated by a dedicated skilled worker can make a real difference to chaotic families who have multiple needs.
"But it is important to recognise that there are no quick fixes for families and their children whose problems are often linked with challenging mental health needs, alcohol misuse and poverty.
"Turning around their lives can be a long term process that on the way involves success and failure depending a great deal on accessing good quality specialist support as well as achieving financial security."
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