Doubts have been cast on plans to redevelop Watford General Hospital after the Government ordered trusts to submit schemes with slashed budgets.

Outline planning permission for the £590m plan was granted by the borough council on Tuesday, but trusts have now reportedly been told to send schemes costing no more than £400m by Monday.

In a letter seen by the Health Service Journal (HSJ), they have been told to send the cut-budget option alongside their preferred choice, and a “phased approach” to delivery of their preferred option.

The requirement to submit a scheme capped at £400m has sparked fears that hospital trusts will no longer be able to proceed with their initial plans.

The letter was reportedly sent by the New Hospital Programme team, which oversees the Government's plans for “40 new hospitals”.

West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust’s scheme involved building a new hospital on the current Vicarage Road site, with most wards then housed in three buildings beside it up to 17 storeys high.

Campaign group Herts Valleys Hospital, which is calling for a centrally built hospital instead of rebuilding Watford General, claimed "the wheels have well and truly come off the bus".

Spokesman Steve Day said the trust should now "take stock of what is affordable and deliverable as opposed to the previous decision that inappropriately ruled out building on clear sites and took no account of cost".