Lord Duncan visits The HALO Kilmarnock
UK Government Minister for Scotland Lord Duncan visited the site of The HALO Kilmarnock, an ambitious regeneration project.
Lord Duncan and Marie Macklin
Lord Duncan today [4 December] saw work getting underway on the £65 million urban regeneration project, which is supported by £3.5 million of UK Government funding.
The funding will support a new Enterprise & Innovation Centre to foster the next generation of entrepreneurs, with strong focus on innovation, digital skills, and cyber security.
The HALO Kilmarnock, located on the site of the former Johnnie Walker bottling plant, is a multi-faceted brownfield regeneration scheme which will create an innovative, inspirational and imaginative urban park with a dynamic commercial, educational, cultural, leisure and lifestyle quarter. Its low carbon, renewable deep geothermal district heating network will address fuel costs on the site and have the capability of being extended to service other areas of the community – a first for the UK. The development will also include a light manufacturing facility and key worker private rental accommodation.
Lord Duncan said:
Supported by a £3.5 million UK Government investment, The HALO Kilmarnock is an ambitious, important development that will create jobs, grow the economy and drive innovation. The project will attract international companies to locate in the town, benefiting from the excellent transport links and a local, well-trained workforce. The HALO Kilmarnock marks a fresh start for Kilmarnock and Ayrshire and I hope that the project is a catalyst for further regeneration in Scotland and beyond.
Marie Macklin, founder and director of The HALO Kilmarnock, said:
The HALO will play an important role in the UK Government’s UK Industrial Strategy, to which we contributed at its consultation stage. The economic benefits of this community-led development will be felt not just in Kilmarnock and East Ayrshire, but across the whole of Scotland and driving down into the Northern Powerhouse, harnessing the power of the 4th Industrial Revolution – the digital revolution.
We welcome the UK Government’s support for The HALO Kilmarnock which is a major infrastructure project in its own right and we hope that it will prove to be a catalyst for other infrastructure projects, such as the improved road and rail links that will connect it with the rest of the UK.