International businesses should seriously consider teaming up with developers to provide housing for new staff they bring in, Labour and Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister said yesterday.

Mr. Lister said that with virtually full employment, every new job created meant a foreign worker had to be brought in, worsening the Island's housing crisis.

Speaking at the annual meeting of Bermuda Employers Council, Mr. Lister admitted the Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC) waiting list had got longer since the last election.

He said in one instance, the success of a company meant 30 work permits had to be signed. And with 200 new units built a year, this company had taken ten to 15 percent of the housing starts in the year.

Mr. Lister suggested companies could be good corporate citizens by helping build up the Island's infrastructure.

Association of International Companies president David Ezekiel said last night the idea could work and his committee would examine it.

Afterward his, Mr. Lister told The Royal Gazette: "As a group, international business companies have got to sit down and consider how their staff coming to Bermuda are going to be housed.

"It may mean joint ventures with the private sector or the public sector. I don't have a problem with ventures with the private sector, collaborating with developers.

"It could be BHC, it could be the private sector. I am not suggesting they have to go a certain way, but I am suggesting they have to look seriously at how we house the community.

"As a group, they should look at how best to approach it. The consequences of not doing it are what we are experiencing now.

"If Bermudians consistently find themselves squeezed from a housing perspective, you can create all the jobs you want, but (a Bermudian) may not be able to pay the rent."

Mr. Lister suggested internationally companies could collectively - or individually if they had enough staff coming in - finance a building project with a Bermudian developer.

The company could receive rent over a period of time to recoup its investment and at the end of the day, the housing unit would be owned by the Bermudian company.

Mr. Ezekiel said last night that some international companies were looking at the problem through renting properties, but not through teaming up with developers.

"That sort of structure where the equity ends up with the Bermudian developer could work," he said. "I am not blessing that particular structure, but it is not a totally new idea and it is something that can be pursued a bit more strongly.

"It may require some relaxation of certain rules but it is the sort of thing international business could play its part in reducing the infrastructure strain on housing that is certainly created."