The trust responsible for the hospital is due to hold a board meeting later today where it will discuss plans to terminate the PFI contract under a break clause that can be actioned if the project is not handed over by the end of this month.

A statement is expected from ministers to coincide with the decision.

According to a Sky News report Matthew Hancock, the health and social care secretary, is understood to have ordered officials to end the impasse surrounding the construction of the hospital, which had been due to open last year.

Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospitals NHS Trust meeting papers reveal that the cost of rectifying serious structural faults and condemned cladding is holding up plans because nobody can quantify the cost of finishing the hospital.

This has made existing PFI investors that have been trying to restart the project nervous about funding its completion.

Laing O’Rourke has been involved in talks about restarting the hospital project since Carillion’s collapse at the start of the year.

But progress was halted over costing in substantial risk on an open-ended project where guaranteeing existing work would be difficult.

The original cost of the project was set at £280m, although costs have soared to an estimated £350m.

Although the project is at the fit-out stage the final completion bill could still be significantly higher after a survey by consultant Arup raised concerns about significant structural and cladding issues.

One source close to the project said: “There has even been talk that it could be cheaper to pull it down and start again.”