However, there has been significant backlash at Historic Environment Scotland’s bid to grant the buildings protected status.

Kevin Stewart, Aberdeen Central MSP and a former SNP housing minister, has previously branded the move “ludicrous”. 

Meanwhile, Douglas Lumsden, a former Aberdeen City Council co-leader and now Conservative MSP, called it “the craziest decision people in this city will have ever heard”.

Tower blocks said to be ‘significant landmarks’

Aberdeen City Council had appealed against the decision, made a year ago, claiming giving the blocks’ listed status would affect its ability to maintain and repair them. It also claimed the ruling was “perverse” in light of the Grenfell Tower fire in London, which claimed the lives of 72 people.

However, the Scottish government backed the listing for five of the eight blocks originally granted protected status – Gilcomstoun Land, Porthill Court, Seamount Court, Virginia Court and Marischal Court. 

The interiors of the blocks are excluded, meaning it will be easier to renovate flats, under a ruling published on Friday.

The appeal was upheld in three cases, for Thistle Court, Hutcheon Court and Greig Court, on the grounds that the buildings did not stand “sufficiently apart” from others in Aberdeen or elsewhere in Scotland.

Dara Parsons, head of designations at Historic Environment Scotland, welcomed the ruling that five of the eight listed buildings should remain as category A.

“These buildings are significant landmarks and tell us much about the ambitions of post-war Aberdeen,” she said. “There isn’t another group of this quality and distinctiveness in Scotland.”