The £450m Royal Pier scheme to redevelop Southampton waterfront could be taken over by a foreign investor after the project’s current backer raised doubt over its viability.

The news comes after current investor, KMG Capital Markets, said scheme had "buildability concerns".

Developers RPW Southampton Ltd said it hoped the new investor would buy the rights to develop the land "within three to four months".

Council leader Simon Letts said he had recently held meetings with two potential investors and had confidence the project would progress.

The proposed scheme, which includes a hotel, casino, restaurants and offices, would involve reclaiming land from the river.

However in its latest reports shareholders KMG said surveys of the river showed that a costly concrete basement structure would be needed to deal with layer of contaminated silt on the riverbed.

These increased costs and Brexit uncertainty had caused “significant impact on the value” of the site.