£150m city regeneration plan and council tax frozen as councillors approve budget

Councillors in Aberdeen have agreed to freeze council tax for the coming year - as they also set out plans for a £150 million regeneration focused on the city centre and beach area.

The plans were approved at a meeting yesterday - where members also agreed to keep charges and fees at the same level.

Other plans include investment in hydrogen as part of a drive to achieve net zero - with an investment package worth £38.4m.

But more than £20m of savings were made, which included changes to the way the council manages its finances.

The opposition SNP group accused the council's Conservative, Labour and independent administration of coming up with the £150m plan on the "back of a fag packet" and said there was no detail about how the money would be spent or how it would be financed.

Leader Alex Nicoll said: "What we need is actual proposals for some kind of detail on what these projects might be and what they would potentially cost."

But the administration vowed to bring forward more details in the coming weeks. It wants to make use of two new UK schemes to help secure funding for the project.

Conservative co-leader Douglas Lumsden said: "As well as dealing with the pressures of Covid, our council has kept a firm focus on securing long-term prosperity, which is why we are able to commit to an unpresented investment of £150m in the city centre linking it the beach area.   

"We have ensured over recent years that we have maintained a strong financial position, as recognised by our external auditors and our credit rating assessment, and delivered a balanced budget for the last three years which - when we look at the next five years - it can be clearly seen that we have headroom to provide the city and its businesses with an assurance that the council will invest in the areas that will make a real impact to them as they seek to come out of this lockdown."