E RIC Pickles deserves to be the toast of Somerset. Since coming to office his department has saved the green belt and abandoned an expensive scheme to centralise the Fire Emergency Response Network.

The last government had intended to build more than 20,000 houses and would have ruined villages such as Whitchurch and Newton St. Loe. One of the Conservatives' main campaign pledges was to abolish these top-down targets and allow local democracy to rule. The Fire Service proposal was one of John Prescott's more expensive follies which would have closed the efficient centre at the top of Lansdown with the loss of jobs in North East Somerset.

These two decisions are emblematic of Mr. Pickles' approach. He is willing to trust local councils, fire brigades and other public bodies under his control to make decisions for themselves. This is encapsulated in the Localism Bill which is being debated in Parliament this Monday. It reverses a trend that pre-dates the last Labour government but grew in strength under it. In 1997, only four per cent of local authority spending was ring-fenced, a figure that had risen to 15 per cent by 2010. This understates the true position as the detailed regulations and guidance issued from Whitehall gave councils increasingly less flexibility over their budgets with a greater responsibility for funding them through Council Tax.

There is a choice as to how government services are delivered. One is that it should be determined at a national level and delivered to specific targets with the local responsibility being administrative. The other is to say that local people can vote out councils who do not provide services that they want at a price they can afford. The drawback to the first is that a targets culture often leads to unintended consequences. Box-ticking becomes an end in itself rather than a means of improvement. The problem with the latter is that service provision will vary county by county. It could institutionalise the postcode lottery.

I support the approach taken by Eric Pickles because I believe in trusting the electorate. This is an easy thing to say but what does it mean? Turnout in local elections is low but only one in three people feel they can influence local decisions. If it were apparent that voting in local elections changed things more people would vote and at the parish level they might even get involved as councillors as well. This would give local government an incentive to try harder because they would be voted for on the back of their own record rather than as a protest against an incumbent government. It will encourage excellence against mediocrity and will leave the inadequate with no hiding place.

Next week: Stephen Williams, Lib Dem MP for Bristol West