An expanded City of Hamilton could be used to house expatriates in apartment blocks and free up more traditional neighbourhoods for Bermudians.

Sir John Swan said a bigger city could not only be used to provide homes for thousands of overseas workers, but provide new commercial and industrial areas to help boost the flagging economy.

“If we are to grow, we should recognise some of the historical problems and recognise when we had about 6000 foreigners that have now departed the Island, a lot of that capacity was taken up in traditional neighbourhoods,” he said.

“If we can have a consensus on growth, we don’t want to go back and congest the traditional neighbourhoods.

“In order to meet some of the residential requirements and commercial and industrial requirements, we would need to expand the city limits — particularly as we are going to encourage the importation of people coming to Bermuda to work and take up residence.

“To meet the new dimensions of Bermuda, an increase in the size of the population from where it stands now, attract more business activity and expand residential accommodation within the city limits, we should look at the extent of these limits.”

Long-serving Premier Sir John, the Island’s elder statesman as well as a successful businessman, said the city could be extended along Pitts Bay Rd and St John’s Rd, and take in Langton Hill and parts of North Shore Rd to the eastern end of the grounds of Government House.

The city would also expand to cover the Marsh Folly area, Glebe Rd, Parsons Rd and King Street.

In addition, the city could spread its footprint along East Broadway, with a new dock area located on North Shore.

“We should be encouraging more development within the city limits at both the east side and the west side of the city,” Sir John said. “We need to bring in more capital — to do that we should try to put some incentives in for development like tax and duty reliefs for development.

“The cost of construction in Bermuda is so expensive, it will become very tough in the future to get the margins to support development. But once the city starts to grow, the income starts to grow because of the taxes and so on.”

Sir John was speaking as The Royal Gazette publishes his blueprint to help Bermuda recover from recession and assist it to bounce back to prosperity.

On Saturday, Sir John said that a city up to three times its present size, with high-rise apartment blocks on the outskirts to house expats would help boost the economy of the entire island.

He added that the new-look Hamilton would also need an improved transport system.

Sir John said a hi-tech tram network with GPS alerts for arrivals at stops, would be key to making the city a place to live in, as well as work.

And he warned: “Without a certain critical mass, we will not be able to expand the airport or make proper use of the hospital and service facilities or create the income necessary to look after our ageing population and a shrinking domestic population.

“One might consider this to be a big reach and I’m sure there will be the doubting Thomases and objections — that’s entirely understandable, but if we sit and do nothing we will see some consequences that will place a burden on us we have not yet fully realised.”