David Cameron has put mending Britain’s “broken society” back on the top of the Government’s agenda following the chaos of last week.

As part of his vision for change, the Prime Minister vowed to address 120,000 “problem” families.

“The broken society is back at the top of my political agenda,” said Mr Cameron.

“I have an ambition, before the end of this parliament, we will turn around the lives of 120,000 most troubled families.

“We need more urgent action too, on the families that some people call ‘problem’, others call ‘troubled’. The ones that everyone in their neighbourhood knows and often avoids.”

The Prime Minister spoke of a “moral collapse” in Britain and made reference to concerns raised in the last week about the disintegration of families and family life.

He pledged to ensure that future domestic policies would not encourage family breakdown.

Mr Cameron said: “The question people asked over and over again last week was ‘where are the parents? … Well, join the dots and you have a clear idea about why some of these young people were behaving so terribly.

“Either there was no one at home, they didn’t much care or they’d lost control.”

Acknowledging the “very modern” problem of “alienated, angry young people”, the Prime Minister also announced plans to have 16-year-olds take part in non-military national service.

He expressed his intention to expand the National Citizen Service, a voluntary scheme that currently attracts a few thousand participants each year.

Addressing the causes of last week’s looting, Mr Cameron blamed an “indifference to right and wrong” and the “criminal disease” of gangs that have “infected streets and estates across our country”.

“Social problems that have been festering for decades have exploded in our face,” he said.