There have been 30 City Deals agreed in the UK overall, so how does the Aberdeen City Region Deal compare?
The £250million investment has been described as being at “the smaller end of the spectrum” for city deals.
In August 2014, former Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander and Greg Clark, the Secretary of State for the Department for Communities and Local Government, unveiled a £1.13billion package for the Glasgow and Clyde Valley area.
This represented a contribution of £500million each from Westminster and Holyrood, plus an additional £130million from the eight local authorities .involved The funding will be made available over a 20-year period.
The partners behind the deal estimate that it will be worth an extra £2.2billion to the economy each year and unlock an extra £3billion in private sector investment.
The money was allocated to 20 infrastructure investment projects, including a rapid transit link to Glasgow Airport and a cruise ship terminal, as well as support for life sciences.
The original £1.2billion City Deal for Greater Manchester was announced in 2012.
Further funding in support of the UK government’s ambitious “Northern Powerhouse” initiative has boosted this to £2.75billion, to be delivered by 2021.
The 10 local authorities which have agreed to the deal expect this to contribute an extra £3.6billion per year to the economy by late 2020s and create 37,000 jobs.
In November, Wales was awarded a deal “in principle” for the Cardiff Capital Region worth £1.82billion.
The funding included £580million each from the Welsh and UK governments, plus £120million from the combined ten local authorities involved.
The funding will support unspecified capital investment in infrastructure priorities for the city region and is expected to add £1.5billion a year to the area’s economy.
The 10 local authority leaders are currently working with the UK and Welsh governments to
develop a “detailed proposition, with a final decision is expected in 2016”.
Jenny Stewart, KPMG partner and head of infrastructure and government in Scotland, said of the Aberdeen City Region Deal: “Having secured the deal, then there is scope to build on that and say what more could be done to drive growth in the region, building on what has already been achieved.
“What I’ve seen in the big infrastructure deals there are eight to 10 local authorities getting together thinking through a different way of working and targeting investment in what is going to drive economic growth.
“Manchester is a really good example. They got their initial city deal and have been back to the UK government on a number of occasions to extend those further. They didn’t constrain their ambition. They kept going from there.
“That might be something Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire might consider.”