The city council’s opposition SNP leader has blamed Brexit for a downgrading of the authority’s credit rating.
Aberdeen made history last October by becoming the first Scottish council to be assigned a rating – so that it could launch an unprecedented £370million bond issue on the stock exchange.
Initially they were given a Aa2 rating from the Moody’s agency which has now been downgraded to Aa3 , in line with a tumble in the UK’s overall credit rating from Aa1 to Aa2.
Last night SNP leader Stephen Flynn said: “It’s disappointing that the council’s credit rating has been lowered as a result of decisions taken in London rather than Aberdeen.
“We already know that Aberdeen will be the worst hit city in the UK by Brexit and that assessment didn’t even include an analysis of any impact as a result of the UK’s credit rating falling.”
The council’s audit committee heard this week from finance chief Steve Whyte that if the city’s credit rating was to tumble three notches or below the UK’s then the authority would have to pay back the £370m straight away.
Council co-leader Douglas Lumsden said that the downgrade had been based on the UK’s downgrading and was unlikely to affect council business “in any way”.