| Hi there, it's Helen Chandler-Wilde, a UK reporter in London and editor on the Readout. Hope you enjoy today's newsletter. We are now just four days from the International Investment Summit that the prime minister is hosting in London on Monday. We've discussed it in the Readout before, but a quick refresher: the government-led meeting will bring together around 300 business leaders to show that Britain is "open for business." The hope is they can tempt people who control large amounts of money to invest more of it in the UK. Investment is a tricky – yet crucial – topic in the UK. It looks like plenty more of it will be needed to meet the new government's growth ambitions: after years of under-investment, around £1 trillion is necessary over the next decade to boost growth, according to figures released last month. Investment is particularly needed in the basic pillars underpinning our economy – energy, housing, transport, and water. But today Jess Shankleman writes about potential further delays in water investment, as the regulator Ofwat paves the way for moving a crucial ruling from December to January. Any delay could be a big problem for Thames Water, which needs to "raise £3.3 billion ($4.3 billion) in new equity before it runs out of money next year," she writes. Another utility looking for investment is energy. Today, Francois De Beaupuy and Will Mathis report that EDF is seeking up to £4 billion in investment for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant currently under construction in Somerset. Costs for it, like for many major infrastructure projects in the UK, have ballooned, and are now expected to reach £47.9 billion in current prices. And despite energy production being pretty fundamental, "the costs and the long timescales for nuclear projects make it difficult to attract investors," they write.  A nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point C Photographer: DANIEL LEAL/AFP Those ever-increasing costs and timescales are prevalent across British infrastructure projects – and are something the government needs to tackle if they want to attract investment. At Hinkley Point C, delays have been for a variety of reasons: from labor shortages to planning questions over the safety of hedgehogs. Similar stories of long delays can be told about other projects, like the £300 million spent on the planning application alone for a crossing of the Thames east of London. The document runs to 360,000 pages, according to think tank Britain Remade, or 66 miles long if laid end to end — longer than the tunnel itself. The group found issues in other transport projects too, like trams, which in the UK cost twice as much per mile to build than the European average. There are signs the government might be taking note. Yesterday Joe Mayes wrote about how ministers have been talking up infrastructure projects this week, from Transport Secretary Louise Haigh signaling HS2 will be extended to central London rather than ending six miles away, to the announcement of a 10-year infrastructure strategy to be published in the spring. But that comes at a cost. "The signs point to [Rachel] Reeves giving herself potentially billions of pounds extra for investment by changing the fiscal rules in her budget announcement on Oct. 30," Joe writes. Increasing government borrowing limits could panic markets. But unstable water companies, high energy bills and overloaded roads won't thrill voters, either. Want this in your inbox each weekday? You can sign up here. | 
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