Brighton & Hove has become one of the most watched councils in the country for its pledge to hold a council tax referendum.  The Green leadership's gutsy move has earned them a symbolic no-confidence vote and raised eyebrows across the sector.

But the truth is that many more councils will be forced to go to the public over the coming years.

The sheer scale of the cuts that will hit local government after 2015 will force residents to choose between free parks and subsidised municipal theatres or keeping the council tax down.

A referendum is a pretty good way of opening up that conversation.  Ministers appear to have grasped this fact. Eric Pickles and Brandon Lewis have practically dared councils to hold referendums.

What else was their extraordinary game of chicken over the referendum limit supposed to achieve?  The Government seems happy to let council tax increase as long as ministers themselves don't have to take the flack for it.

The history of council tax referendums is pretty mixed. Councils like Bristol have failed to make their case to the electorate and had to settle for a hit to their income.

But the Milton Keynes poll in 1999 showed that when councils can show that an increase is critical to supporting public services, the public can be convinced.

The council won a 10% increase.  It is easy to dismiss referendums as somehow undermining local democracy, but this is to defend a set of representative institutions that are already changing dramatically under the pressure of public cynicism, a confident and assertive public and the development of social media.

There is nothing more democratic than actually asking the public, as long as this is done as part of a careful and considered debate about the future shape of local spending.

Until the broken council funding system is properly fixed referendums will be necessary, and they may even be desirable.

Simon Parker is director of the New Local Government Network