Ken Macintosh MSP, Scottish Labour’s shadow cabinet secretary for communities, became the latest in a series of politicians to undertake a fact finding tour at the award winning BRE Ravenscraig Innovation Park.

During his tour of the facility, which was conducted by Dr David Kelly, group director BRE Innovation Park Networks, Mr Macintosh viewed a number of the innovative new homes on the Park, which many believe will influence Scotland’s future housebuilding agenda.

He visited the Curriculum House, which has been designed and built by brightest and best architectural and construction students from New College Lanarkshire and is the first ‘live’ higher level educational project of its kind in the UK. He was enjoyed a guided tour of the Energy Efficient Home, specifically designed for the affordable sector of the market by Scottish firm AppleGreen.

This uniquely designed home has attracted international attention from organisations and governments across the globe who are seeking to address their own house building industries, by improving skills, creating jobs and ultimately building large volumes of quality, affordable, energy efficient homes.

Mr McIntosh also saw first-hand the Refurbished House, a recreation of the “four in a block” home – a house type of which there are over 250,000 in Scotland. The model at Ravenscraig, which has been delivered by BRE Scotland, Edinburgh Napier University and Historic Scotland and was constructed by local builders Cruden, demonstrates a range of innovative “retrofit solutions” for this house type, which accounts for some of the most energy inefficient homes across the country.

During 2015, deputy first minister John Swinney visited BRE Innovation Park to unveil the Retrofit App, whose data is the most up to date in the market, and was captured as a result of ongoing testing and monitoring of the Park’s Refurbished House.

Last year, tours were also arranged for Marion Fellowes MP and Phil Boswell MP, the Westminster representatives for the people of Motherwell and Wishaw and Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill respectively.

Dr Kelly said: “We greatly enjoy welcoming visitors to the Innovation Park so it was with particular pleasure that we welcomed Mr Macintosh in his capacity as shadow cabinet secretary for communities as opportunities like this allow us to share first hand our vision and ambitions for future solutions to many of the issues we face today. At BRE Ravenscraig Innovation Park, we aim to blend science and technology with innovation and entrepreneurship to find solutions for existing and future buildings not only in Scotland but in the UK, in Europe and around the world.”