Will £30bn investment dispel doom and gloom around Aberdeen's future?

There has been much-perceived doom and gloom about Aberdeen and the surrounding area’s future.

There are plenty of suggestions that the best days, when the oil boom hit in the 1970s and 80s, are gone, and the city and region are on the decline.

Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, however, believes that £30bn will be invested in the north east in the next decade.

On the surface, this sounds like welcome news, and of course, it is.

However, it also shows a region that continues to invest heavily in energy.

Of the £30bn, more than £22bn is set to come through energy, including a carbon capture site in Aberdeenshire, multiple wind farm developments and hydrogen projects.

Some will argue this is simply making the best use of the existing skills and expertise.

That’s true, but we also saw the impact that can have when one region relies so heavily on a single sector, in this case, oil and gas, and it begins to decline.

Beyond energy, transport is the next biggest investment at more than £4.5bn.

Again, though, there is a caveat.

£3bn of that investment is from the planned dualling of the A96 between Aberdeen and Inverness. But the commitment to complete that project by 2030 is already gone and there’s concern around future plans and timelines.

Overall, though, any region would welcome £30bn of investment, the largest since the oil boom, according to the Chamber of Commerce.

While lots of elements are within the control of the region, others aren’t.

Among them, the pace of the decline of oil and gas if firms truly invest in renewables here or look elsewhere, and the trickle down of the money to other businesses.

But also, the wider political and economic prospects of the UK and further afield will have a real impact, too – and perhaps they are as uncertain as ever.