ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

An extra £200 million to help troubled families escape crime and social breakdown was unveiled today as the Treasury set out to shift from the rhetoric of spending cuts to recovery.

Treasury Minister Danny Alexander said the cash would fund projects championed by the Government’s families czar Louise Casey, targeting 400,000 families at risk of becoming a problem in their neighbourhood.

It comes ahead of Chancellor George Osborne’s spending review on Wednesday, which will set out £11.5 billion of cuts, including big reductions in Ministry of Defence backroom staff.

That will be followed by a growth statement on Thursday when Mr Osborne’s Lib-Dem deputy Mr Alexander will unveil plans thought to total almost £100 million for long-term investments, spread over the five years after the 2015 general election.

A hard-fought spending battle was concluded yesterday in a phone call between Mr Alexander and Business Secretary Vince Cable, who was working from his Twickenham home.

Mr Cable, the last minister to settle, is thought to have escaped with departmental cuts slightly below the average of eight per cent, mainly because the Chancellor is championing science as part of his growth agenda.

On Saturday, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond settled. Sources say he is saving “hundreds of millions” of pounds — helping to stave off further cuts in military personnel — by calling a halt to costly internal IT projects, outsourcing them in future to the Cabinet Office.

Labour’s Ed Balls today attacked Mr Osborne for not doing more to promote growth. Writing in today’s Standard, the shadow chancellor said: “Osborne wants desperately to claim his plan has worked and that things are getting better. But life is getting harder for ordinary families.

“Prices are rising much faster than wages, bank lending to businesses is down and long-term unemployment is rising.”

Tory MPs warned of a row if, as expected, Mr Alexander, unveils funding for the first tranche of the HS2 high-speed rail line.

Cheryl Gillan, the former Cabinet minister, said the £32 billion scheme is using up too much money. “This is putting too many eggs in one gargantuan basket,” she said.

Mr Alexander unveiled the money for families during a trip to Wandsworth Family Recovery Project. He said: “Reforming how services are delivered is going to be a central part of this week’s spending round.

“The Troubled Families programme is a radical example of how, by spending a bit more in certain areas, we can save much more in others and by doing so create a stronger economy and a fairer society.”

Ms Casey, head of the Troubled Families programme, said it would help people struggling with health problems or parenting, “where their children aren’t in school or are at risk of being taken into care”.

Cuts first, then a spoonful of sugar with investment

Commentary by Joe Murphy

By the end of this week, the Chancellor hopes you will feel more confident about the economic recovery — but not too relaxed.

Wednesday’s spending cuts statement by a stern George Osborne will be followed by Thursday’s growth investment plans unveiled by deputy Danny Alexander.

With a fortune in extra investment in the offing, it would be tempting for the Treasury to boast of green shoots taking root. Instead, the message will be “out of rescue, into recovery”. Even that will be tinged with a hint that we could relapse back into crisis unless a steady hand is kept on the fiscal tiller.

There is a calculation behind this blend of caution and hope. Senior ministers recall that the last time the Tories won an election outright was in 1992 when the economy was struggling under debt.

Five years later the party suffered its worst-ever rout at a time when the economy was booming. The lesson being, according to a minister: “We have to show our medicine will make people better off, but we must not let them think we are no longer needed.”

At a strategy meeting last week with Mr Osborne, the Prime Minister, Tory chairman Grant Shapps, strategist Lynton Crosby and media adviser Craig Oliver, it was concluded a modest recovery is enough for the Conservatives to win — providing they focus on issues that move voters, such as welfare reform and immigration.