In Wales, I've seen what happens when devolution isn't done right. Here's what Andy Burnham must know

I have lived in Wales for forty years, and I have watched devolution transform my country — not always for the better. The lessons of the Welsh experience should be required reading for Andy Burnham as he prepares to extend devolution to the English regions, because the mistakes that Wales made are mistakes that England cannot afford to repeat.

The first lesson is that devolution without adequate funding is a trap. The Welsh government was given responsibility for health, education and transport but was not given the fiscal powers to match. The result was a government that could be blamed for failures it did not have the resources to fix, a dynamic that eroded public trust in devolution itself. Burnham's devolution settlement must include genuine fiscal autonomy, or it will reproduce this failure.

The second lesson is that institutions matter more than rhetoric. The Welsh Assembly, now the Senedd, was established with goodwill and high hopes, but its early years were defined by institutional weakness: a lack of policy capacity, a civil service that was too small and too inexperienced, and a political culture that rewarded loyalty over competence. Burnham must invest in the institutional infrastructure of regional government, or he will find that his mayors have responsibility without capability.

The third lesson is that devolution is not an event but a process. The Welsh settlement has been revised repeatedly since 1999, and each revision has been a political battle. Burnham should establish a mechanism for the regular review and adjustment of devolved powers, rather than treating his initial settlement as permanent.

Devolution has been, on balance, a force for good in Wales. But it has also been a lesson in the difficulty of doing it well. Burnham has the opportunity to learn from that lesson. He should take it.