Fresh doubts have been cast on whether the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn will be rebuilt, as the government looks to cut its future spending. NOAH VICKERS explains why

The controversial mini-budget, announced by former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in September, caused economic turmoil in the UK.

It promised a radical range of tax cuts which spooked the financial markets, who were concerned about how the government would pay for them.

Prime minister Liz Truss has since apologised for going “too far and too fast” and sacked Mr Kwarteng, appointing former health secretary Jeremy Hunt in his place.

Mr Hunt has told his cabinet colleagues that government departments will continue to be asked to look at finding ways to save taxpayers' money, but “this work should focus on areas which would not affect the service the public receives”.

It is understood that capital projects - major infrastructure works which may take some years to come to fruition - are therefore the most vulnerable to any “efficiency savings” Mr Hunt will be looking to make.

Those projects could potentially include the government’s new hospital programme, with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) currently aiming to build 48 new hospitals by 2030.

The department has said the programme is still currently expected to go ahead, but very little has been confirmed at this stage about what will be in the chancellor's medium term fiscal plan on October 31.

The money available to each hospital project could potentially be trimmed back, so that they become less ambitious.

Investment in cutting-edge medical services in Cambridge, for example, could possibly be used to justify certain services offered at the current QEH not necessarily being budgeted for in a new hospital on the site.