Back in 2006 when he was the new leader of the opposition, David Cameron made a series of speeches laying out his vision of a new, more compassionate conservatism. This was the time of his famous "hug-a-hoodie" speech and his very photogenic visit to the Arctic. In amongst these ideas he started to talk about GWB – the general wellbeing of the nation. He went as far as saying that "Improving our society's sense of wellbeing is, I believe, the central political challenge of our times."

Many on the right of the Conservative party, and indeed many from all across the political spectrum, thought this was nothing more than a distraction technique, employed to draw attention away from the serious business of politics – the economy. However, despite having the perfect excuse to ignore wellbeing in the form the global economic crisis, Cameron has stuck to his guns and instigated the western world's first national measure of wellbeing (Bhutan takes the credit for the world's first measure with their Gross National Happiness index).

As part of the annual population survey, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) now systematically surveys over 150,000 British citizens about their personal wellbeing. Having data on this number of people allows for finely detailed analysis and recently, local data has been released which really bring the numbers to life.

Last week we discovered that Harlow – the post-war new-town in Essex - takes the dubious prize of being the unhappiest town in the UK, whereas Fermanagh in Northern Ireland is the happiest. The former scored 6.8 (out of 10) in terms of their life satisfaction, while the latter scored an impressive 8.2. And we learned about the surprising difference in the levels of happiness of Colchester and Ipswich. Fewer than 20 miles separate the similar-sized towns – both with populations of between 100,000 and 200,000 – and share similar levels of material living standards. Yet the residents of Ipswich are happier, scoring 7.7 to Colchester's 7.1.

The gathering of wellbeing data allows us to challenge orthodoxies and assumptions. In London, which consistently ranks as the wealthiest area of the UK, 30 out of 34 boroughs are below the UK average for wellbeing. While in Northern Ireland, the third poorest area, 24 out of 26 districts exceed the national average. This new wellbeing data clearly reveals that economic measures of welfare are insufficient to fully capture people's experience of their lives. This is not to say that material living standards don't matter – they clearly do. But these new measures offer data that is highly relevant to policy makers.

Enlightened local policies are revealed as having a real impact on our wellbeing. Questions of whether we feel safe at home, if there are good local services and access to green spaces, or if we suffering from noise or air pollution can greatly influence local scores of wellbeing. Of course some local authorities who gain lower scores will feel exposed – just as some managers do when we collect this type of data within organisations. It has always been tempting for local government to blame national government for their woes, and while often there is truth to their claims, we can now tease out local effects.

As local authorities start to think about how to create policies that improve people's wellbeing then they would be wise to think about how to improve the strength of local relationships. It's very strange that many political commentators have criticised the "happiness agenda" as being individualistic. This couldn't be further from the truth.

We are relational beings, born through a relationship, brought up in a network of relationships and living out our lives in relationships. It should come as no surprise that the quality of our personal relationships has a great impact on our happiness. Local policy makers should begin to question how they can encourage people to make more and better connections.

What could they do to break down the barriers that stop people interacting? How can they design local spaces so that people meet – both intentionally and accidently? Many architects deliberately design communal spaces so that people bump into their neighbours. Some of the best local economic plans include facilitating contact between people with mentoring schemes and business networks. The well-being space is much more facilitative than it is prescriptive, so policies that can reflect this should fare well.

Ultimately, a national and local focus on wellbeing allows for a reimagining of how life can be in 21st century Britain. Are we going to continue with our obsessive maximisation of economic growth? Or can we instead think about how to make better places to live, to work and to bring up children? We know that we face huge social and environmental challenges, and we also know that they are not going to be solved through a business-as-usual approach. If people's happiness and well-being is to be made "the central political challenge of our times" then the new evidence base being built on data like that produced by the ONS is to be welcomed wholeheartedly.

Nic Marks is the director of Happiness Works. He is the founder of the award-winning Centre for Wellbeing at the think tank nef (the New Economics Foundation)

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