NEW Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been urged to prevent further “devastating” cuts to the UK aid budget.
The call follows reports that aid earmarked for the world’s poorest people could be slashed due to the economic mess caused by previous chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.
MPs have already been told that the aid budget is under “very significant pressure”.
Philip Barton, permanent under-secretary of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, told the International Development Committee that no decisions had yet been taken – but committee chair Sarah Champion said she had heard the aid budget might drop to 0.3% of gross national income, less than half of the legally binding figure of 0.7%. In 2020, that was cut to 0.5%, causing £4.6 billion in aid cuts.
Richard Watts, Save the Children’s senior policy adviser, told the Sunday National that any further cuts to the UK’s aid budget would be “devastating” for the world’s poorest.
A major strain on the current aid budget is due to the Home Office using it to fund refugee housing costs in the UK.
Watts said these costs were expected to amount to more than £3bn this year, compared to £28 million in 2012, primarily due to the hosting of Ukrainian refugees.
While Save the Children welcomes the support for the refugees, Watt said that including it in the aid budget would result in overseas projects being cut and promises broken.
“This is bad for the communities impacted as well as the UK’s standing in the world,” he said. “And it does not provide the taxpayer with value for money.”
Watt added that UK aid had so far been a “force for good” in the world.
“Millions of people have had help when they needed it and we’ve made enormous progress,” he said. “We’ve helped halve child deaths in the last two decades, taught children to read, vaccinated entire communities and supported girls to take their place at the table. A child’s life is saved every two minutes thanks to Britain’s investment in immunisation.
“UK aid shows us at our best by doing our bit to help tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges, whether that is by responding to humanitarian disasters, disease outbreaks or getting children into school after fleeing their homes.
“At a time when global crises are impacting millions in this country, providing sufficient and effective support to address them is ultimately in the UK’s best interests.”
Watt said there was still time for the UK Government to “course correct”.
“At the very least we urge them to count the costs associated with hosting Ukrainian refuges outside of the 0.5% budget this year and next, given these were not foreseen and planned for,” he said.
The UK aid budget is around £11bn, with some £4bn going to multilateral institutions including the World Bank.
Of the remaining £7bn, which is administered by the UK directly, more than half will be spent domestically this year, including some £3bn on housing refugees, according to the Centre for Global Development’s analysis.
While the UK is allowed to count refugee-hosting costs as official development assistance under internationally agreed rules, it is one of only a few countries – and the only one in the G7 – to fund all the costs of Ukrainian refugees from its existing aid budget, the Washington and London-based think tank said.
