IREI hosts its 2022–2023 Editorial Advisory Board meeting for Institutional Investing in Infrastructure (i3) in November. The market for infrastructure investing, and all markets, have gone through significant changes since the previous board meeting a year ago.

The United Kingdom is set to become home to the world’s largest automated drone superhighway within the next two years. The drones will be used on the 164-mile Skyway project connecting towns and cities as part of a $334 million funding package for the aerospace sector, says a report by the BBC.

The GLIO Index of infrastructure companies fell in September –11.8 percent, and year-to-date, it is now down –14.3 percent. Global equities weakened (–9.3 percent) in September, and year-to-date are now down –25.1 percent.

Transport infrastructure development will be an important driver of infrastructure investment globally throughout the coming decade. According to our Infrastructure Key Projects Data (KPD), which includes infrastructure projects above $30 million in value, there are 10,931 transport infrastructure projects globally in various pre-construction stages or under construction, with a combined investment value of $6.8 trillion.

Investors considering where to deploy their capital in the current U.K. market are increasingly focusing on issues around inflation. The principal concern is that, if sustained, inflation could eat into the real value of their investments, reducing future purchasing power. The knock-on effect on society could be a retrenchment in consumer expenditure, damaging the robustness of consumer-facing businesses (both real and tech-based) and any investments linked to them.