Former Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh joins housing charity

Former Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh has taken up his first non-executive role since leaving politics, joining the board of a housing charity.

Macintosh will take up his role later this month with Lar Housing Trust, which provides mid-market rental homes across Scotland.

Lar launched in late 2015 with a loan of £55m from the Scottish Government and subsequently secured £65 million of private finance to build its portfolio of rental homes. That portfolio already consists of 840 homes across Scotland - occupied, under construction or in planning - at over 40 sites.

Mr Macintosh served as a Labour MSP from the inception of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 until assuming the role of presiding officer in 2016.