Southend United Football Club (SUFC) has been given full planning permission by the government to build a new 22,000-seat stadium at Fossetts Farm.

However, the club has rejected a local media report which had suggested the cost of the project had risen sharply. Plans for the stadium, which include a hotel and conference facilities, were initially approved last year by both Southend Borough Council and Rochford District Council in early 2007. But the project was delayed after the government decided to call-in the club's planning application.

The government granted the club final approval for the project in July this year, and work is now able to begin on the new stadium, which is expected to be complete in time for the 2010-11 season. Ron Martin, chair of SUFC, said that the club is budgeting for a total build cost of between £44m and £46m, including the hotel and contingency. Martin also moved to dispel claims that the project cost had risen to £80m from an initial estimate of £25m two years ago.

"The suggestion that the cost of the stadium alone had risen from £25m to £50m and now £80m is very misleading, when nothing fundamental had changed," Martin told the club's website. "My development team and I are going to great lengths to ensure this project succeeds and that the appropriate cost/value ratios apply." Martin did concede, however, that the delay had meant the current economic downturn would have an effect on funding the new stadium.

"This is a complex funding package, and one that now needs to take account of significant yield shift, softer rents, a collapsed housing market and, most crucially, a lack of liquidity in the banks," he said. "Had this project been 'on the chocks' twelve months ago, we would perhaps not need to be so resourceful in the financial engineering." Martin also revealed that discussions had taken place with the US bank Morgan Stanley over possible funding initiatives through the bank's Stadium Capital Funding subsidiary, although nothing had been confirmed.