Last year the state spent an estimated £9 billion on just 120,000 families Whatever you call them, we’ve known for years that a relatively small number of families are the source of a large proportion of the problems in society. Some in the press might call them ‘neighbours from hell’. Officialdom might call them ‘families with multiple disadvantages’.

In December, David Cameron made a speech about troubled families. We certainly know one when we see (or hear) one, and house moves can be filled with anxiety about what the new neighbours will be like. It tends to involve loud music late at night, harassment, dogs barking non-stop or turning a shared garden into a junkyard. Most of us have had a neighbour from hell at some point in our lives.

She suspects it may be the other way round. Philippa writes about a speech in which Prime Minister David Cameron bemoans poverty as a cause of societal problems.