Just over a decade ago, Aberdeen was thriving.
It was the gateway to Britain’s North Sea oil and gas industry. Average weekly earnings were higher only in London and it consistently ranked among the top UK cities for business and jobs growth.
At £215,000, property prices were nearly double the Scottish average, having risen 165% in just 10 years as the area boomed.
Following the scent of oil and gas, new arrivals appeared in their droves to fill highly paid positions. Between 2004 and 2015, the population jumped by nearly 20,000 and local businesses flourished.
The picture is starkly different today. Tumbling oil prices, punitive taxes and the underwhelming advance of renewables have tipped the North Sea energy industry into a spiral of accelerated decline that is taking Aberdeen’s property market down with it.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s pledge to deliver a Net Zero transition for the area – in which jobs in oil and gas are replaced by ones in clean energy – has also fallen flat.
Rather than a renewables energy boom, some of the biggest companies in the region have scaled back investment or withdrawn entirely, seeking more profitable opportunities in other places as far-flung as the Persian Gulf.
Many of the most skilled workers have gone with them....<<<Read More>>>...
