The UK’s modern Industrial Strategy identifies a set of frontier sectors that are expected to drive long-term, innovation-led growth and enhance the UK’s global competitiveness. These sectors are characterised by rapid technological change, strong knowledge spillovers, and a reliance on highly skilled labour. They are also deeply interconnected: firms often operate across multiple frontier activities, drawing on overlapping skills, infrastructure, technologies, and supply chains.
In this research, we provide a forward-looking assessment of six of the frontier sectors identified in the UK’s Industrial Strategy–advanced manufacturing, financial services, creative industries, life sciences, digital and technology, and clean energy–examining where they stand today and how they are likely to grow through to 2030.
Our research shows that these sectors are not growing evenly across the country. Instead, growth is highly concentrated in major city-regions, where cross-sector ecosystems allow firms, skills, infrastructure, and institutions to reinforce one another.
For policymakers and city leaders, this highlights that supporting frontier industries is not just about targeting sectors, but about strengthening the local conditions that enable them to thrive—from skills and housing to transport connectivity and research infrastructure.
This project is a collaboration between Oxford Economics and The Data City, combining The Data City’s novel company-level classification of frontier sectors with Oxford Economics’ detailed sectoral employment forecasts.