Aberdeen City Council’s debt will climb to more than £1.2billion by 2019 according to forecasts by financial officers.
In a budget report, it is estimated the authority will owe a total of £1,205,669,000 by the financial year 2019/20 before the debt begins to fall again.
Currently the debt stands at around £851million.
In November, it was reported that the local authority owed about £483million in long-term debt to the treasury.
But a high-profile bond issue was also launched on the London Stock Exchange last year adding £370million to the total.
Large projects, like the new Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre in Bucksburn and the renovations of the art gallery and music hall, have not been paid off yet meaning the debt will grow in years to come.
Next year it will rise to £1.043billion before starting to reduce in the financial year 2020/21- dependent on spending being kept low.
SNP finance spokesman and group deputy leader Graham Dickson said future generations would have to take on “labour’s legacy”.
He said: “The city will have to make tough decisions in years to come because of this Labour-led administration’s adding of hundreds of millions of pounds of new debt over the last five years.
“While we supported the bond issue it was only needed because it was a cheaper way of offsetting these debts than traditional borrowing.
“The administration’s project management has also allowed projects to go over time and millions of pounds over budget.”
But finance convener Willie Young said: “We wouldn’t have such debts if the Scottish Government had adequately financed the city over the years with our city council still the lowest funded in the country.
“Our assets are more than twice our debt. It is our administration that has put this city on a sound financial footing after years of SNP cuts.”
