NEIGHBOURS from hell are being targeted by a new Government project aimed at helping unruly families.

The Home Office yesterday announced it had launched 53 Family Intervention Projects (FIPs) across the country - six of which are in the North-East.

The projects target families who plague communities with anti-social behaviour by offering support and, in some cases, taking them out of their homes to live in residential units.

The Government hopes the projects will troubleshoot about 1,500 families a year and save the taxpayer thousands of pounds.

In the North-East, projects have been launched in Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Sunderland, and South Tyneside.

The initiative is aimed at families at risk of losing their home and having their children taken into care.

A key worker will help the family and challenge the root causes of their behaviour by offering support and sanctions.

Examples of support include basic child care, drug counselling, and domestic violence advice.

A contract is drawn up setting out the expected behaviour changes and the support to be provided.

Sanctions may also be enforced, including demoting tenancies or gaining possession orders or the prospect of children being taken into care.

Louise Casey, coordinator for Respect, the Government's scheme to tackle anti-social behaviour, said: "These are families that in the past may have been written off by agencies as 'lost causes' - but now will be offered the right help and incentive to become decent members of their community and give their children the opportunity to grow up with a chance in life." Different levels of intervention may be used, depending on individual circumstances - at the most intensive level, families will be given supervision and support on a 24-hour basis in a residential unit.

In Middlesbrough, the project will be run by Tees Valley Housing Group and Middlesbrough Council.

Barry Coppinger, the council's executive member for community safety and leisure, said: "Working with those responsible for the majority of anti-social behaviour complaints, we know we need to address the behaviour of the main offenders as well as at the causes of such behaviour."

'That was my normal life' - unitl they intervened

SINGLE mother Nicola O'Connor was facing eviction after subjecting her neighbours to 18 months of misery.

She held late night parties, involving a seemingly endless number of people staying at her home and, often, drug taking.

"I was basically harassing the neighbours," she says, speaking from her new home at the Family Intervention Project unit, in Middlesbrough.

"My neighbour's kept complaining - they had had enough. But if the neighbours came round to complain, I'd just shout at them and give them lots of grief.

"The council kept coming out, asking me to knuckle down and buck my ideas up," says Nicola. "I would for a few days, but then it would just go back to normal. I was going to get evicted and social services told me to calm my ways."

In July last year, with help from the Family Intervention Project, Nicola and her five-year-old son, Ben, were taken to a residential unit - where there are staff on-hand to offer support and advice.

Nicola, who is now taking a number of courses, is now also able to have visits from her two daughters.

Reflecting on her past behaviour, Nicola, 27, said: "I knew I was being unreasonable, but didn't know any different. That was my normal life - I grew up like that."

The project has helped Nicola tackle her drug addiction and she has been clean for six months.

"It is strange now, it is difficult to explain. Ben is a completely different child, he loves school whereas he never used to go before."