Plans to create a special company to develop council-owned assets and regenerate Aberdeen have been backed by councillors.

The One Aberdeen city development company, which will be owned outright by the city council, will take council assets which could be but are not making any money for the city.

In the past, unused assets have been sold on to third parties, but under the new scheme, they will be transferred to One Aberdeen for development and used to generate cash for the city, ensuring the people of Aberdeen, rather than a private body, benefit from the asset.

One of the prime aims of the firm will be to regenerate specific areas of Aberdeen by maximising the use of the city's unused assets and to drive and promote the regeneration and economic development of the city as a whole.

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Any profits made by One Aberdeen, which could operate outwith the city as well as in the Granite City, can be re-invested in regeneration.

Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure convener Kate Dean said: "I welcome this. Moves to create a company like this have been around for a long time. We have assets at the moment which are not working for the people of Aberdeen and that's not what we are about. We want to make our assets work for the city.

"We've heard an awful lot about what's possible and I think if we are serious about regenerating our city, then this is the way forward."

Vice-convener Callum McCaig added: "I think this is an exciting model for how we can make our assets work better for the Council and for the citizens of Aberdeen. Rather than privatising our assets, this is a public private partnership which will actually work for the public, not just for the private sector and I look forward to seeing it moving forward."

(GK/KMcA)