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one year in

It is now a year since Tom Smith took over the helm of Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future with the pledge that he would not be chairman of a “talking shop.”

As he points out, he had hardly settled in when there was a global financial meltdown, the biggest recession since World War II and “every chief executive of every entity resigned or retired” (including those of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire councils.)

However he remains positive and believes “the ball is still moving forward” and action is beginning to follow the talking.

He feels ACSEF is beginning to gain traction, that the Board is now a cohesive unit, and that the private and public sectors are working together in their groundbreaking partnership to make the North-east one of the most robust and resilient economies in Europe with a reputation for opportunity and enterprise.

At the recent ACSEF summit he highlighted delivering an integrated transport system and improving the efficiency of planning as the two “nippie sweeties” on which ACSEF has to chew.

“Laurencekirk Station has opened up and hopefully Kintore might follow,” he said. “Things are happening at last at the Haudagain roundabout and of course we are waiting for the outcome of the Western Peripheral Route inquiry - so there are real tangible deliverables coming out.”

He sees progress too in relation to planning which he suggests is not just about procedures and processes but about mindset.

A Planning Modernisation Group, chaired by Bob Collier, Chamber Chief Executive, involving businesses, developers and planners has been established to look at what needs to be done to speed up the process, including the mindset issue.

“It epitomises the approach we are taking in a number of areas,” said Tom. “It is private and public sector getting together to say ‘Ok, what we have is not adequate, it is not fit for purpose, so what are we actually going to do to make it better?’ and I think there has been some progress along those lines.

“But planning and transport are both big problems, big issues and you will never get a silver bullet solution. It will take some time.”

He says the city centre is an embarrassment and is passionate about its redevelopment in general and in particular Sir Ian Wood’s offer of £50 million of his personal money to raise Union Terrace gardens.

He says he is encouraged by the fact that he has yet to fail to convert an opponent to the scheme when the concept has been explained.

“For me this is a massively transformational opportunity for the North-east of Scotland and we would be absolutely crazy to let it slip through our fingers,” he says.

But where will the remaining £70 million come from?

He says it is clear that for the foreseeable future there will be a lack of public sector funding.

“But clearly there are other pots we could look towards. There is European money, there is Lottery money, there are various funding pots for things associated with city centre redevelopment so part of the next phase of the feasibility study is to flesh out those funding opportunities and see what could apply here.

“Allied to that the council is probably asset rich but cash poor and has some assets it could put into a private/public sector managed pot. They have properties along Belmont Street and around the city in key locations so there are mechanisms whereby we can leverage those assets to raise capital to make things happen.”

He has also floated the suggestion that a 1% business rate could be levied which would raise £5 million a year to help fund projects like Union Terrace Gardens.

“The response has been amazingly good,” he said.

“No one has said it is absolute nonsense and I am barking up the wrong tree and I have had a number of people come with thoughts or observations about it - but no one in the negative.

“I think people are up for exploring the concept and as I have said before, if it isn’t this scheme it has to be something else, so come up with an alternative - and there haven’t been any alternatives.

“If the private sector believes in the future, and I think they do, we should be looking at how we can, in a fair and equitable manner, come up with something which enables us to participate in the game but also to help shape the game.”