Grim report on spending at city heart

The importance of efforts to breathe life back into Aberdeen city centre has been underlined by new research, which also indicates the uphill task ahead.

The Granite City has been revealed as one of the worstperforming high streets in the UK for spending, and the only Scottish one in the bottom 10.

Credit card data from earlier this month was used by economic think-tank Centre for Cities to draw up the list, which compared spending with pre-pandemic times.

This placed Aberdeen the fourth worst in the UK, above only Coventry, Oxford and Aldershot, and just below London.

City council planners have worked on an updated blueprint to encourage people back into the city centre.

New research has named Aberdeen as one of the worst-performing high streets in the UK for spending, and the only Scottish city in the bottom 10.

Economic think-tank Centre for Cities revealed the city is the fourth worst in the UK, based on anonymised offline credit card spend data, earlier this month.

Its index, comparing the current situation to a baseline pre-lockdown level of 100, gives Aberdeen a score of 73 – above only Coventry, Oxford and Aldershot, and just below London.

Dundee and Glasgow both appear to have recovered closer to the preMarch 2020 level with scores of 93, while the data suggests Edinburgh is almost exactly where it was 18 months ago with a score of 98.

Research carried out by The P&J two months ago showed there were 79 empty units in the city centre, 36 of which were on Union Street alone.

That story broke as John Lewis confirmed it would be permanently closing its large department store on George Street, one of the city’s biggest retail draws.

Retail expert Professor Andrew Turnbull, from Robert Gordon University’s business school, said at the time: “The footfall these major retailers need to justify their existence in the city and generate sufficient income just isn’t there.

“The actual sites are subject to problems with rent, wages and overheads. Online doesn’t help but they are also struggling with competition from outof-town supermarkets for whom groceries represent a minority of turnover and profit.

“The likes of John Lewis have had declining earnings and footfall for several years, even before Covid, and then we had the pandemic, so it is a perfect storm,” added Prof Turnbull.

However, despite those concerns Aberdeen does not rank in the bottom 10 of Centre for Cities’ footfall index.

The only Scottish city to appear in that group is Glasgow, the sixth worstperforming city in the UK for footfall according to anonymised mobile phone data.

Commenting on the figures, Paul Swinney, the director of policy at Centre for Cities, told the Sunday Times: “Aberdeen has suffered a wider decline in the local economy for a number of years, which continues to hit spending.

“But Edinburgh is interesting because while it hasn’t recovered its pre-pandemic footfall, it has seen a bit of a tourist boost, which has offset the lack of workers in town.”

Last week, Aberdeen City Council tasked planners to come up with an updated blueprint to encourage people back into the city centre – including the possible pedestrianisation of Union Street.

The initial parts of the masterplan are due to emerge at the end of October, with councillors making a decision in early November.

STRUGGLING: Aberdeen is the only Scottish city in the bottom 10 for the effects of lockdown on consumer spending.