More than £100,000 may need to be spent to turn Braintree’s troubled families around.

The latest figures, released by Essex County Council, show there are 113 families within the district who meet the Government’s criteria for intensive intervention.

The Essex Police and Crime Commissioner Nick Alston has named troubled families as one of the Community Safety Partnership’s priorities for the district.

Braintree Council’s community safety manager said: “There are a number of families within the district with complex and multiple needs that may encompass community safety.

“The priority identified the need for closer partnership working including linking into the Family Solutions Team Mid Team and sharing information and data under the agreed information sharing protocol.”

Families may meet the Government’s definition of troubled if they have characteristics such as being involved in youth crime or anti-social behaviour, having children regularly excluded from school or truanting, having an adult on out-of-work benefits or they are costing taxpayers a lot of money.

The average cost is an estimated £75,000 per year.

The Government’s financial framework for its Troubled Families Programme says intensive intervention, which brings together agencies such as the police and local councils, cost £10,000 per family.

As part of the programme the Government has said it will pay up to £4,000 of this.

Latest figures show there are 2,200 troubled families in Essex, excluding Southend and Thurrock, and that 736 were being worked with by local authorities at the end of September this year.

By the end of October this year 185 of those were classed as having been “turned around.”

By 2015 Essex County Council aims to have helped 2,220.

The Government’s programme aims to turn around 120,000 families between 2012 and 2015.