Industrial Strategy growth-driving sectors
In June 2025, the UK Government published its Industrial Strategy – a 10-year plan to significantly increase business investment and grow the industries of the future in the UK.
The Strategy focuses on backing eight sectors (the IS-8) with the highest potential, and the frontier industries at their leading edge – and targeting the places and clusters across the UK that support those sectors, to increase national productivity, strengthen economic security and resilience, and support environmental goals and the net zero transition.
We crunched the numbers to establish which of the IS-8 are particularly prevalent in Buckinghamshire and found that:
- Buckinghamshire has higher than national average employment in four growth-driving sectors:
- Life sciences
- Advanced manufacturing
- Digital and technologies
- Creative industries
- Within the IS-8, Buckinghamshire has higher than national average employment in four ‘frontier industries’:
- Aerospace manufacturing
- Film and TV
- Music, performing, and visual arts
- Management consultancy
- Buckinghamshire has higher employee growth rates (2018-23) than the national average in two growth-driving sectors:
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- Life sciences (22.6% vs 5.3% nationally)
- Advanced manufacturing (3.7% vs -0.6% nationally)
- Within the IS-8, Buckinghamshire has higher employee growth rates in two ‘frontier industries’:
- Film and TV (7.0% vs 4.6% nationally)
- Aerospace manufacturing (0.6% vs -1.7% nationally)
The Strategy also identifies eight foundational industries that provide critical inputs and infrastructure across the IS-8 sectors. Of these, Buckinghamshire has higher than national average employment in one – construction.
A full list of the IS-8 sectors, their frontier industries and the foundational industries can be found here.
