The consortium behind Britain’s biggest hospital PFI scheme, Skanska Innisfree, has denied that it is about to change the project’s architect.

The designs for the £1bn Royal London Hospital in east London, by architect HOK, were panned by a CABE design review team last month, leading to speculation that Skanska would call in Nightingale Associates and Terry Farrell Associates as replacements.

Both Farrell and Nightingale were part of the Bouygues consortium that lost to Skanska in a two-horse race for the scheme last year.

However, a spokesperson for Skanska stated that the team was not talking to either architect.

The spokesperson said: “We are not having any discussions with the Bouygues consortium. We are working with the NHS trust, the Greater London Authority and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and are committed to finding a satisfactory way forward.”

Both CABE and London mayor Ken Livingstone have warned that the scheme would be refused permission unless the design was changed.