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For many years, screen investment in the UK has revolved, understandably, around London – our capital city is a world-class hub and a historic centre for production. Yet step onto the set of almost any blockbuster made in Britain today, and you’re just as likely to find yourself outside the M25 as within it. Hertfordshire, in particular, has emerged as the UK’s new main stage – a creative powerhouse with an international reach, now rivalling even the legendary sprawl of Los Angeles for state-of-the-art facilities and future-facing ambition.
Over the last quarter alone, more than £11 million of gross value was generated by Hertfordshire’s screen sector. This is not just recovery after the much-lamented production strikes of 2023 and 2024. It’s momentum – and it’s building. We now sit as the UK’s second biggest film and TV production economy after London. But in Hertfordshire, we’re not simply recycling the capital’s talent and resources. We’re building something new: an ecosystem in which public and private sectors collaborate, where world-class facilities meet world-class skills, and where genuine innovation powers the stories that captivate global audiences.
Investment here is visible and tangible. Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden – already home to Harry Potter’s soundstages – is nearing completion on a major expansion. Down the road, Elstree Film Studios, where I have the honour of serving as Chair, is celebrating a remarkable centenary. In partnership with MBS, we’ve reopened the iconic stages 7, 8 and 9 – the last remnant of the original Star Wars set. When the experts advised demolition, we chose instead to invest and modernise. Anyone who’s ever worked on those stages knows it was the right decision.
Yet heritage without forward thinking is merely nostalgia. Our answer is the Elstree Immersive Experience, the county’s first major convergence of technology and tradition – bringing the magic of UK filmmaking to new audiences. And there’s more. Sky Studios Elstree has just secured planning for a massive expansion, proof that global players – the likes of Sky, Universal, and Comcast – see Hertfordshire as a permanent fixture in screen production’s future.
None of this is accidental. It’s the result of deliberate collaboration: Fairbank Studios, rescued for production use by our council, is adding capacity and innovation space. The Langleybury Film Hub is advancing plans for a combined independent TV and training facility to foster new talent.
There are important regional lessons from this Hertfordshire model. Liverpool’s independent production fund exemplifies ambition, supporting regional storytelling and the creative entrepreneurs otherwise locked out of the mainstream. Wales, Bristol, and the West of England are building distinctive production clusters – proving conclusively that the UK’s creative economy thrives when it is distributed and ambitious.
In today’s industry, top-tier studios are only part of the story. Modern film and television production turns increasingly on one overlooked factor: data. Last week, Hertsmere secured a deal for a new £4bn Equinix data centre – the kind of investment that transforms the infrastructure available to major productions. Real-time virtual production, VFX rendering across continents, cloud-based editing – these all rely on ultra-fast, reliable data flows. In Hertfordshire, our co-location of top studios and best-in-class data infrastructure gives incoming productions a competitive edge almost nowhere else in Britain can match.
But physical and digital assets mean little without people. That’s why we’re investing in Screen Hertfordshire, a triple helix partnership linking higher education with industry and government, and breaking down the old barriers between supply chain, employment and policymaking. Skills bootcamps with Warner Bros., Sky and BBC Studios are already underway. New DWP-funded pathways are opening the industry to underrepresented communities. And our leadership in AI-driven production workflows is positioning the region not for the world of yesterday, but of tomorrow.
We know what’s at stake. My family ties, like many in this region – has ties to the sector spanning four generations. This legacy matters. But we are determined that the next century will belong just as much to digital craftsmen and creative coders as it does to directors and actors.
So, as investors and policymakers look beyond today’s headlines for the next model of UK growth, I urge you to look to Hertfordshire. Here, the future of the national screen economy is not an abstract promise. It is a work in progress.
From Star Wars to Barbie, from The Shining to Paddington, Hertfordshire has helped shape the global imagination. As we move from soundstages to data centres, one fact remains: we are just getting started.
Cllr Jeremy Newmark will be speaking on the Shared vision, local delivery: How UK clusters can scale screen production at the UK Screen Investment Programme Summit, where he will share insights on Hertfordshire’s model for distributed growth and innovation in the screen sector. View the programme.
Cllr Jeremy Newmark is Leader of Hertsmere Borough Council, Vice-Chair of the Hertfordshire Growth Board and Chairman of Elstree Film Studios
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