UK bilateral aid to start rising after ‘terrible’ cuts

Andrew Mitchell says funding to lowest-income countries will nearly double but not return to earlier levels

The UK's bilateral overseas aid budget will start to increase in 2024-25 after taking a terrible hit" over the previous three years, Andrew Mitchell, the minister for development and Africa, has said.

The overall aid budget, covering multilateral and bilateral aid, is to rise from 7.4bn this financial year to 8.3bn next year, he said. It was 6.9bn in 2022-23.