Lease-to-buy is being considered as a radical way of keeping Government's capital programme rolling after the post-September 11 financial freeze.

Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott told The Royal Gazette that his staff were looking at using private capital as the ministry tries to push ahead with plans to get staff out of rented accommodation into Government-owned property.

He said the method, similar to buying a house with a mortgage, was used in the US, UK and Belgium and would also help keep the building sector buoyant if recession started to bite.

He said: "We would no longer have to pay someone in the private sector to maintain their property. It would be a Government asset, you are leasing to buy.

"It's a new concept for Bermuda's government."

He said the proposed combined court building and police station in Court Street and the planned Government office block on the Court Street/Church street junction could be candidates for the new financing.

But he said he would not aim to get both projects going at the same time and risk over-heating the building sector.

He said neither had a concrete timetable after Finance Minister Eugene Cox put the blocks on because of economic uncertainty.

Mr. Scott said he would have to get the idea past Mr. Cox, who he said was "cool to the idea of seeking funds from the private sector".

Mr. Scott said: "I think he has every reason to be conservative. It's for me to convince him it's a viable alternative."

He said using private sector cash would mean funds earmarked for capital projects could be used by the Finance Minister for more urgent measures to keep the economy running in uncertain times such as the Buy Bermuda campaign.

The idea will have to be approved by a cabinet sub-committee and the full cabinet.

And Mr. Scott said the ministry was looking at other innovative ways to raise cash. He said Bermuda's spiralling waste production, which grows between three to five percent every year, could even be used to Governments' advantage.

Bermuda might team up with islands to the south to sell iron, tin, and aluminium which was currently uneconomical to ship abroad, said Mr. Scott.

He said Government is investigating whether it can directly use energy created by the Tynes Bay incinerator rather than selling it to Belco for around $2 million a year and then buying it back at great cost.

He said: "Currently one of the growing expenses of Government is energy bills."

As an example he said it might be possible to run a power line from Tynes Bay to the nearby bus depot which he said would prove an advantage when storms took out Belco's supply.

He stressed: "It's at the thinking stage. It might be best to continue to sell power to Belco."