Canadian-UK financier Grosvenor Park has started providing funding for films through the UK's tax-based sale and leaseback system at financing or production stage rather than after the film is completed.

Grosvenor aims to provide about 6% of the budget on projects its finances at this stage. The company is finalising deals for Dave Stewart's Honest for an enhanced soundtrack and The Body, starring Antonio Banderas, for further post-production costs and an extra day shooting in Italy.

Andrew Somper, Grosvenor's chief operating officer, said that Grosvenor could fund 20 projects next year in a similar manner. The percentage of 6% is slightly lower than the traditional 7-7.5% offered by the sale and leaseback system, by which a producer sells the negative of a film to investors and then leases it back over a period of years.

The move follows a year in which Grosvenor more than doubled its UK sale and leaseback activity, handling productions with a total budget of £150m. In its first year of UK sale and leaseback activity, in 1998, Grosvenor worked on productions worth £60m.