Cameron will press ahead with happiness survey

London: More than 200,000 families are to face intrusive questions about their ‘life satisfaction' as part of a government drive to measure the nation's happiness.

David Cameron said on Thursday he was determined to press ahead with a new ‘wellbeing index', despite criticism the initiative risks being ‘airy fairy and impractical'.

The Prime Minister called for a national debate about how ‘together we can build a better life'. He said the focus of previous governments on econ-omic growth had been too narrow. The Office for National Statistics, which yesterday launched a consultation on the National Wellbeing Project, will survey the families next year on a voluntary basis.

It aims to produce a measure of wellbeing by 2012. The questions are still being drawn up, but issues could include emotional health, social isolation, personal relations and access to holidays and consumer goods.

People may be asked how much they recycle as part of an assessment of their ‘ecosystem condition'. Cameron suggested the study might also look at the impact of out-of-town shopping centres, the problem of binge drinking and public attitudes towards marketing aimed at children.

Brainchild

The wellbeing initiative is believed to be the brainchild of the Prime Minister's £90,000-a-year ‘blue skies thinker' Steve Hilton. He is viewed with suspicion by many Tory traditionalists for his soft-focus approach to politics, but has been close to Cameron for years.

The Prime Minister said it was important to gain a picture ‘of how life is improving' to inform ministers in drawing up policy. He added: "If anyone was trying to reduce the whole spectrum of human emotion into one snapshot statistic I would be the first to roll my eyes. But that isn't what this is about.

"Just as the GDP [gross domestic product] figures don't give the full story of our economy's growth - but do give a useful indicator of where we're heading - so this new measure won't give the full story of our nation's wellbeing but will give us a general picture of how life is improving.

"To those who say that all this sounds like a distraction from the serious business of government, I say finding out what will really improve lives and acting on it is the serious business of government."

Len McCluskey, the newly-elected general-secretary of the giant Unite union, said it was an attempt by the Coalition to ‘pull the wool over people's eyes' and disguise the impact of spending cuts.