Billions were lost by a loans scheme set up to support businesses through the pandemic while a community pleaded for funding to replace its crumbling hospital.

Some £47bn was handed out under the government-backed Bounce Back scheme launched in 2020.

Now a report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee says £17bn is expected to be lost to fraud and defaults.

It says: "These losses are money that could have been spent on improving existing public services, reducing taxes or to reduce government borrowing."

The £4.7bn lost to fraud is more than the £4.2m the government gave to hospitals to maintain and refurbish buildings last year.

North West Norfolk MP James Wild, who is a member of the committee, has been campaigning for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn to be replaced since he was elected in 2019.

A new build is expected to cost around £680m - a tiny fraction of the sum lost to taxpayers in the Bounce Back debacle, which the Public Accounts Committee described as "eye-watering".

Mr Wild said: "It would pay for many hospitals, that's why it's so important to tackle the fraudulent issues."

The QEH was not included on a list of 40 hospitals given money for new builds or refurbishment by the government in 2020.

It now hopes to be included on a list of eight further schemes which are due to be announced shortly, although it is competing with more than 100 other bids.

Mr Wild said he expected an announcement to be made some time after next week's local elections.

The QEH was built from prefabricated sections in the late 1970s and had an expected working life of 30 years when it opened in 1980.

The building is still in use more than four decades later - despite its concrete roof planks beginning to fail.

After meeting campaigners last week, Mr Wild said: "We share an impatience for decisions to be made and will continue to press for the modernisation pf the hospital that patients and staff deserve."

The hospital has submitted two bids - one for a new build and one for a phased modernisation of its Gayton Road site.

Some 1,500 props are now in place to prevent it from collapsing.