With the government's decision to "level up" the country by investing heavily into largescale nationwide infrastructure projects, there is concern that between 2-10% of spending is still being lost through fraud, collusion and bribery. So says the head of counter fraud services at accountancy firm Crowe, Jim Gee.

The example of the much-publicised and controversial HS2 scheme (approved at a price range of between £72bn and £110bn), could give rise to between £1.4bn and £7.4bn in fraud and corruption due (for example) to unscrupulous contractors looking to now increase their profits after bidding low to win the contract.

Fraud within the construction sector is well-known, and taxpayers will continue to lose out to fraud and corruption unless better measures are put in place to oversee and regulate these projects.