The Scottish Government has been accused of “shortchanging” the north-east after it emerged other cities have received millions more in funding for major projects.
Work on the new £333million Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre is well under way, with the venue expected to be open in time for next year’s Offshore Europe.
The Scottish Government put forward about 3% of the funding for the project – around £10million.
But it has emerged that similar projects – like the SSE Hydro in Glasgow and the Caird Park Regional Sports Facility in Dundee – have received closer to a quarter of their funding.
About £27million of grant funding was provided towards the £108million SSE Hydro, around 25%, while the Dundee sports centre has a total cost of £23million and is receiving a grant of £5million – about 21% of the cost.
The local authority issued a bond on the London Stock Exchange worth £370million last year to cover the cost of the AECC.
But this will have to be paid back over several decades and the City now has to be informed of certain council decisions.
A briefing note from council officers, seen by the Press and Journal, states: “The Scottish Government have asked Scottish Enterprise to produce an economic impact review on the development. A meeting was held in November 2014, in which Glasgow’s SSE Hydro was referred to as an example project in which 25% of the capital cost was provided through grant funding. When applying these guidelines to the AECC this would equate to £77m funding.”
And last night, city council leaders Jenny Laing and Douglas Lumsden, also called for a business rates exemption for the development – pointing to the fact they have been put aside for the Dundee facility.
In a letter to Finance Secretary Derek Mackay, Mrs Laing wrote that “once again, the north-east is being shortchanged by Holyrood”.
She wrote: “On a visit to see the progression of works at the new £333million Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre earlier this week, we were informed that the new Caird Park Regional Sports Facility in Dundee is to be exempted from paying business rates due to exceptional circumstances related to it benefiting the wider region of Dundee.
“As you will be aware the new £333m AECC project in Aberdeen is being paid for by the council taxpayers of Aberdeen but, given it will deliver huge economic benefits for Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and the wider region, it is being viewed as a regional facility.
“It is clear from the above figures that Aberdeen has had to contribute considerably more of its own financial resource towards a regional facility than the other cities.
“As the lowest funded council in Scotland, we obviously find this disparity concerning and are therefore writing to request that the new AECC regional facility receives the same business rates exemption that has been afforded to the Caird Park project.”
Last night, a Scottish Government spokesman said the exemption for Dundee was a “combination of unique factors” and could not be easily compared.
After the Barclay review on business rates, the government agreed that leisure and cultural venues currently run by arms-length organisations would continue to benefit from relief. However, they decided that new arms-length organisations would not be exempt.
The Scottish Government spokesman added: “All Scottish Enterprise projects are appraised on their merits in line with their priorities and economic returns. The Scottish Enterprise Board approved a £10m contribution to the AECC project which was accepted by Aberdeen City Council and no issues or queries were raised.
“While the existing AECC pays full rates the new AECC will benefit from our new growth accelerator policy, and will therefore will pay no business rates for the first 12 months.
“The specific exemption applied to the Caird Park Community Sports Hub in Dundee reflected a combination of unique factors relevant to that facility, not simply its regional importance.”
