Neighbours from hell will be sent to live in supervised 'sin bins'

Under the £15 million Home Office scheme, disruptive parents and their children will be moved from their homes into the new units and supervised round the clock by staff living with them.

Many will be placed under curfews and banned from having late-night or other unsuitable visitors. Others will be required to undergo drug or alcohol dependency treatment.

Parents will also be made to ensure their children attend school and monitored to check that they carry out basic tasks such as feeding them properly and putting them to bed on time.

The scheme, unveiled today by the Home Office, forms part of the Government's "Respect" action plan for combating antisocial behaviour.

It has been prompted by concern-that existing, less hardlinemethods have failed to curb the activities of a minority of disruptive families, each of which is estimated to cost taxpayers up to £350,000 a year on dealing with the problems they cause.

Critics are likely to question the extent of state intrusion into the lives of families and to raise doubts about whether the "tough loveî approach can work.

Louise Casey, the Government's "Respect" czar, insisted that the time for robust action had come. "This is about tackling a minority of feckless and disruptive families who make life hell for their neighbours and the community around them and telling them that enough is enough," she said.

"Some of them have had people from up to 20 different agencies dealing with them and they are costing taxpayers huge amounts of money. We need to be tough with them because otherwise they won't listen."

As well as the "sin bins" - residential units in which local authority staff and others will live alongside problem families - other "neighbours from hell" will be moved out of their homes and placed under similarly close supervision.

Disruptive parents deemed to need slightly less intensive curbs will be monitored in their own homes but forced to abide by strict behavioural contracts stipulating what they and their children must do.

Ministers, who are funding 53 different projects including seven in London, expect that about 1,500 problem families will be targeted each year.

None of the families dealt with under the scheme will be legally compelled to take part, but will instead be asked to do so to avoid permanent eviction, prosecution for offences triggered by their dysfunctional conduct or the removal of their children into care.

The Home Office believes that the threat of such sanctions will be sufficient to ensure that the majority of the targeted families will take part.

Research conducted by Sheffield Hallam University estimates that problem families can cost the state between £250,000 and £350,000 a year for tackling the crime and social problems that they cause. By contrast, the cost of a place in one of the new "sin-bins" is estimated to be about £15,000 a year.