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UK aid: Reducing spending to 0.3% of GNI by 2027/28

In February 2025, the UK Government announced it would reduce UK aid spending from around 0.5% of gross national income (GNI) to 0.3% of GNI in 2027. The reduction is intended to fund an increase in defence and security spending, which will reach 2.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2027. Aid spending is not expected to return to 0.7% during this Parliament (to 2029).

The fall follows a period of extended pressure on UK aid since 2020, with spending falling from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5% of GNI in 2021. Other major donors — the US, Japan, Germany and France — are also reducing aid spending.

This briefing sets out the government’s decision, its plans on managing the reduction, and responses in the UK Parliament and aid sector.

How much will UK aid spending fall by?

UK aid spending will fall from 0.5% of GNI to 0.48% in 2025/26, 0.37% in 2026/27 and 0.30% in 2027/28. Aid at 0.3% of GNI in 2027 will total an estimated £9.2 billion, the lowest in cash terms since 2012. When measured as a proportion of GNI, spending will be at the lowest level since 1999. If aid had remained at 0.5%, it would have totalled around £15.4 billion in 2027/28.

The government expects the aid reduction to provide £500 million for defence in 2025/26, £4.8 billion in 2026/27, and £6.5 billion in 2027/28.

What plans on spending have been set out?

In March and July 2026, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) published annual spending plans and plans for specific countries to 2028/29. The value of total FCDO programmes will fall by 31% compared with 2025/26. Multilateral contributions will fall less, by 22%.

Contributions to multilateral agencies

The government says it is prioritising multilateral spending to maximise UK impact and support large-scale work. Its contributions to the World Bank and Education Cannot Wait funds remain at the same level as previous rounds; however, UK funding for Gavi, the vaccine alliance, and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria will fall. UK aid for the Polio Eradication Initiative will end. Instead, the government says it will work with the World Health Organization and Gavi to pursue work on polio eradication.  

The Labour government had committed to meeting the 2019 pledge to spend £11.6 billion in climate finance from 2021/22 to 2025/26, but over the next three years the UK plans to spend around £6 billion. The government says it will seek to mobilise a further £6.7 billion from private funds.

Bilateral aid for specific countries

Greater cuts will occur in bilateral programmes. Bilateral aid to Africa will fall from £1.5 billion in 2025/26 to £676 million in 2028/29, though the government says its £1 billion yearly multilateral aid to Africa will partly compensate.

To mitigate the reductions, the government is also aiming to increase the proportion of aid prioritising women and girls to 90% of bilateral programmes (up from 52% in 2023) and increasing the share of UK aid to fragile and conflict-affected states to 70% of bilateral aid, with a focus on humanitarian support (though aid to Afghanistan and Lebanon will fall).

Commitments will remain at 2025/26 levels for Ukraine, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Sudan and the Overseas Territories (OTs). The UK is phasing out aid for G20 economies, except for Turkey to host Syrian refugees.

What is the government’s strategy on aid?

In 2026, the government set out its “modernised approach” to international development. Its “four shifts”, which include being an “investor” rather than aid “donor”, working in partnership with lower-income states, sharing UK expertise to strengthen existing country systems, build on the policies of previous governments, including the Conservative’s 2023 white paper.

The government acknowledges its cuts risk poverty reduction and equality objectives; to mitigate this, it will focus aid in priority areas. Priority themes are humanitarian aid, global health, climate and nature, economic development, and women and girls. The government says it will also raise more private finance, such as through the City of London.

The International Development Committee Chair, Sarah Champion, has suggested that the government could increase its support for debt relief for low-income countries to free up their own budgets, consider allowing British International Investment to borrow to invest (it already re-invests its profits from its investments), and increase its use of UK Aid Match.

In 2026, the committee has called for more detail on the government’s aid framework to ensure it is prioritised on poverty reduction.

The Center for Global Development thinktank has suggested UK aid becomes more focused on a small number of multilaterals, grants are limited and aid to the OTs reduced.

Update log

24 February 2026: Added information on further spending plans, BBC World Service, British Council, the ICAI, International Development Committee report. 

20 April 2026: Added information on high-level bilateral and multilateral programmes for the next three years. 

10 August 2026: Added information on individual country plans and updated sections on UK policy and evaluations