Consultant Contract Job Trends in England

Consultant
UK > England

The median Consultant daily rate in England is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 August 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 28 27
Rank change year-on-year -3 -1 +11
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,598 1,662 2,148
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.69% 6.03% 6.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.16% 6.59% 6.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,481 1,045 1,308
10th Percentile £413 £413 £412
25th Percentile £463 £485 £466
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £656 £650 £638
90th Percentile £750 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 60 22 27
10th Percentile £36.25 £27.73 £46.50
25th Percentile £51.00 £37.77 £55.47
Median hourly rate £62.25 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -19.68% +25.81% -2.22%
75th Percentile £86.00 £81.25 £67.00
90th Percentile £88.88 - £74.92
UK median hourly rate £62.25 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -19.68% +25.81% -5.32%

All Contract IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 42,206 25,233 30,946
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.42% 91.57% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,476 16,290 20,133
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,208 1,360 1,737
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.55 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.79 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £26.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +63.46% -42.22% +6.95%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £66.33
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.38%

Consultant
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Consultant' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Consultant job vacancy trend in England

Consultant
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in England

Consultant
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Consultant in England over the 6 months to 21 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Consultant in England

Consultant
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in England

Consultant
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Consultant in England over the 6 months to 21 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Consultant in England

Consultant
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Consultant within the England region over the 6 months to 21 August 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London -2 1,206 £550 -4.35% 382
South East 0 416 £540 -1.82% 190
North of England -7 324 £550 - 154
Midlands +5 256 £500 -9.09% 88
North West -3 206 £578 +0.43% 106
South West +12 203 £553 -3.83% 126
West Midlands +13 183 £500 -13.04% 66
Yorkshire -11 97 £525 +4.53% 35
East of England -12 82 £550 - 59
East Midlands -3 66 £525 -4.55% 22
North East -29 20 £750 +38.89% 14
Consultant
UK

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 21 August 2026, Consultant contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Consultant in the job title.

1 559 (21.52%) Security Cleared
2 488 (18.78%) SAP
3 389 (14.97%) Stakeholder Management
4 377 (14.51%) SC Cleared
5 347 (13.36%) Microsoft
6 342 (13.16%) Migration
7 292 (11.24%) Oracle
8 260 (10.01%) Azure
9 253 (9.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 229 (8.81%) SQL
11 225 (8.66%) User Acceptance Testing
12 216 (8.31%) Problem-Solving
13 194 (7.47%) Validation
13 194 (7.47%) Workshop Facilitation
14 188 (7.24%) Cybersecurity
15 181 (6.97%) SAP S/4HANA
16 170 (6.54%) ERP
17 165 (6.35%) Continuous Improvement
18 164 (6.31%) Roadmaps
19 162 (6.24%) Analytics
20 157 (6.04%) Data Migration
21 154 (5.93%) Agile
22 146 (5.62%) AI
23 143 (5.50%) AWS
24 137 (5.27%) DV Cleared
25 136 (5.23%) Requirements Gathering
26 125 (4.81%) Power Platform
27 122 (4.70%) Business Intelligence
28 115 (4.43%) Change Management
29 113 (4.35%) Dynamics 365

Consultant Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 73 (2.81%) SharePoint
2 46 (1.77%) Confluence
3 18 (0.69%) Microsoft Exchange
4 12 (0.46%) Oracle Workflow
5 9 (0.35%) WebSphere
6 8 (0.31%) WebLogic
7 4 (0.15%) Apache Spark
7 4 (0.15%) SAS
8 3 (0.12%) Apache
8 3 (0.12%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.12%) Apache Superset
8 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.12%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
9 2 (0.077%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.077%) CMS
9 2 (0.077%) IIS
9 2 (0.077%) Palantir Foundry
9 2 (0.077%) Smallworld
9 2 (0.077%) WordPress
10 1 (0.038%) Appian
Applications
1 71 (2.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (1.23%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
5 8 (0.31%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.12%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.038%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.038%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.038%) CPLEX
8 1 (0.038%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 181 (6.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 78 (3.00%) Oracle EBS
3 43 (1.66%) Oracle Payables
4 40 (1.54%) Oracle ERP
5 37 (1.42%) SAP FI
6 35 (1.35%) SAP PSCD
7 34 (1.31%) SAP MM
8 32 (1.23%) Dynamics CRM
8 32 (1.23%) Oracle Receivables
9 30 (1.15%) NetSuite
10 27 (1.04%) SAP CO
10 27 (1.04%) SAP SD
11 26 (1.00%) Oracle EBS R12
12 24 (0.92%) Oracle General Ledger
12 24 (0.92%) SAP FI/CO
12 24 (0.92%) Workday HCM
13 22 (0.85%) SAP EWM
14 21 (0.81%) SAP Payroll
14 21 (0.81%) SAP QM
15 20 (0.77%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 260 (10.01%) Azure
2 143 (5.50%) AWS
3 125 (4.81%) Power Platform
4 113 (4.35%) Dynamics 365
5 96 (3.70%) SuccessFactors
6 78 (3.00%) GCP
7 73 (2.81%) Microsoft 365
8 62 (2.39%) OCI
8 62 (2.39%) Power Automate
9 48 (1.85%) Azure DevOps
9 48 (1.85%) Entra ID
10 39 (1.50%) SaaS
11 35 (1.35%) Microsoft Copilot
12 29 (1.12%) PowerApps
13 25 (0.96%) GitHub
14 22 (0.85%) Microsoft Purview
15 17 (0.65%) Copilot Studio
16 14 (0.54%) Azure Logic Apps
17 13 (0.50%) Snowflake
18 12 (0.46%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 50 (1.92%) Firewall
2 49 (1.89%) Network Security
3 28 (1.08%) WAN
4 21 (0.81%) SNMP
5 20 (0.77%) BGP
6 18 (0.69%) VPN
7 14 (0.54%) LAN
8 12 (0.46%) DNS
8 12 (0.46%) SAN
9 10 (0.38%) TCP/IP
9 10 (0.38%) VSAN
10 9 (0.35%) Ethernet VPN
11 8 (0.31%) VXLAN
12 7 (0.27%) 3GPP
12 7 (0.27%) 5G
12 7 (0.27%) MPLS
12 7 (0.27%) NGFW
12 7 (0.27%) Radio Access Network
13 6 (0.23%) DHCP
13 6 (0.23%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (2.85%) Power BI
2 46 (1.77%) Oracle Reports
3 33 (1.27%) SQL Server
4 28 (1.08%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 28 (1.08%) SAP BW
4 28 (1.08%) Tableau
5 27 (1.04%) SAP HANA
6 23 (0.89%) Metadata
7 21 (0.81%) Data Warehouse
8 18 (0.69%) Oracle ODI
9 13 (0.50%) BusinessObjects
10 10 (0.38%) Oracle Database
10 10 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
11 8 (0.31%) Relational Database
12 6 (0.23%) Delta Lake
12 6 (0.23%) Looker
12 6 (0.23%) Power Query
13 5 (0.19%) NonStop SQL
13 5 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 4 (0.15%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 86 (3.31%) JIRA
2 18 (0.69%) Oracle Forms
3 17 (0.65%) Git
4 13 (0.50%) Jenkins
5 11 (0.42%) Hudson
6 6 (0.23%) GitLab
6 6 (0.23%) PowerBuilder
6 6 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.15%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.15%) Zephyr
8 3 (0.12%) Browser DevTools
8 3 (0.12%) JDeveloper
8 3 (0.12%) LoadRunner
8 3 (0.12%) MLflow
8 3 (0.12%) Selenium
8 3 (0.12%) Snyk
8 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.12%) Toad
8 3 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (0.077%) Postman
General
1 570 (21.94%) Finance
2 551 (21.21%) Social Skills
3 195 (7.51%) Analytical Skills
4 165 (6.35%) Public Sector
5 90 (3.46%) Banking
6 81 (3.12%) Manufacturing
7 72 (2.77%) Legal
8 58 (2.23%) Telecoms
9 50 (1.92%) General Ledger
10 48 (1.85%) Billing
11 47 (1.81%) Marketing
11 47 (1.81%) Presentation Skills
12 46 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
12 46 (1.77%) Retail
13 40 (1.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 31 (1.19%) Influencing Skills
15 24 (0.92%) Pharmaceutical
16 20 (0.77%) Local Government
17 19 (0.73%) Law
18 15 (0.58%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (3.23%) Oracle Fusion
2 77 (2.96%) REST
3 51 (1.96%) XML
4 46 (1.77%) Terraform
5 37 (1.42%) SOAP
6 30 (1.15%) Middleware
6 30 (1.15%) SAP Fiori
7 23 (0.89%) Web Services
8 21 (0.81%) JSON
9 18 (0.69%) HTML
10 16 (0.62%) CSS
10 16 (0.62%) LDAP
11 15 (0.58%) SailPoint
11 15 (0.58%) SAP Basis
12 13 (0.50%) OAuth
13 11 (0.42%) SAP PI
14 10 (0.38%) .NET
14 10 (0.38%) ADO
14 10 (0.38%) EDI
14 10 (0.38%) IDoc
Miscellaneous
1 102 (3.93%) Onboarding
2 49 (1.89%) CMDB
3 35 (1.35%) Product Ownership
4 33 (1.27%) Data Centre
4 33 (1.27%) Security Posture
5 32 (1.23%) Legacy Systems
6 29 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
7 25 (0.96%) Operational Technology
8 24 (0.92%) Data Structures
9 23 (0.89%) AI Agents
10 20 (0.77%) Cloud Native
10 20 (0.77%) Replication
11 18 (0.69%) Management Information System
12 16 (0.62%) Analytical Mindset
12 16 (0.62%) Public Cloud
13 15 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
14 14 (0.54%) Algorithms
14 14 (0.54%) FMCG
14 14 (0.54%) Greenfield Project
14 14 (0.54%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 80 (3.08%) Windows
2 63 (2.42%) Linux
3 21 (0.81%) Solaris
4 19 (0.73%) Unix
5 16 (0.62%) AIX
6 14 (0.54%) Windows Server
7 11 (0.42%) VMS
8 6 (0.23%) Android
8 6 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.19%) Apple iOS
9 5 (0.19%) Windows 10
10 3 (0.12%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.077%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.038%) CoreOS
12 1 (0.038%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.038%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.038%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 389 (14.97%) Stakeholder Management
2 342 (13.16%) Migration
3 253 (9.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 225 (8.66%) User Acceptance Testing
5 216 (8.31%) Problem-Solving
6 194 (7.47%) Validation
6 194 (7.47%) Workshop Facilitation
7 188 (7.24%) Cybersecurity
8 170 (6.54%) ERP
9 165 (6.35%) Continuous Improvement
10 164 (6.31%) Roadmaps
11 162 (6.24%) Analytics
12 157 (6.04%) Data Migration
13 154 (5.93%) Agile
14 146 (5.62%) AI
15 136 (5.23%) Requirements Gathering
16 122 (4.70%) Business Intelligence
17 115 (4.43%) Change Management
18 112 (4.31%) Translating Business Requirements
18 112 (4.31%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 229 (8.81%) SQL
2 106 (4.08%) Python
3 52 (2.00%) PowerShell
4 44 (1.69%) PL/SQL
5 40 (1.54%) JavaScript
6 38 (1.46%) T-SQL
7 36 (1.39%) ABAP
8 26 (1.00%) Java
9 14 (0.54%) Bash
10 13 (0.50%) Search Processing Language
11 12 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 12 (0.46%) Kusto Query Language
12 11 (0.42%) C#
13 9 (0.35%) R
14 6 (0.23%) Korn
14 6 (0.23%) Perl
14 6 (0.23%) TypeScript
15 4 (0.15%) Groovy
16 3 (0.12%) C++
16 3 (0.12%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 559 (21.52%) Security Cleared
2 377 (14.51%) SC Cleared
3 137 (5.27%) DV Cleared
4 74 (2.85%) CISSP
5 67 (2.58%) BPSS Clearance
6 58 (2.23%) CISM
7 56 (2.16%) Degree
8 38 (1.46%) Cisco Certification
9 29 (1.12%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 25 (0.96%) CCSP
11 18 (0.69%) ACCA
11 18 (0.69%) CIMA
12 15 (0.58%) PMP
13 14 (0.54%) CompTIA Security+
14 13 (0.50%) CEH
14 13 (0.50%) CRISC
15 11 (0.42%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
15 11 (0.42%) OSCP
16 10 (0.38%) Azure Certification
17 9 (0.35%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (3.35%) NIST
2 75 (2.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 72 (2.77%) Data Quality
4 67 (2.58%) GRC
5 43 (1.66%) QA
6 33 (1.27%) GDPR
7 32 (1.23%) NCSC
8 26 (1.00%) PMO
9 23 (0.89%) SLA
10 21 (0.81%) PCI DSS
11 19 (0.73%) Accessibility
12 18 (0.69%) Actionable Recommendations
13 12 (0.46%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 10 (0.38%) COBIT
15 7 (0.27%) GAAP
15 7 (0.27%) GxP
15 7 (0.27%) JSP 440
15 7 (0.27%) NIST 800
16 6 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
16 6 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 56 (2.16%) Active Directory
2 34 (1.31%) VMware NSX
3 29 (1.12%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (0.81%) vSphere
5 13 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.42%) Docker
7 9 (0.35%) Hyper-V
8 8 (0.31%) IAG
8 8 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.077%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.077%) Firmware
10 2 (0.077%) NFS
10 2 (0.077%) PowerHA
11 1 (0.038%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.038%) oVirt
11 1 (0.038%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.038%) RHEV
11 1 (0.038%) SRDF
11 1 (0.038%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 40 (1.54%) Kubernetes
2 22 (0.85%) Ansible
3 15 (0.58%) Microsoft Intune
3 15 (0.58%) SCCM
3 15 (0.58%) vRealize
4 13 (0.50%) Nagios
4 13 (0.50%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.46%) Netcool
5 12 (0.46%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.42%) OpenView
6 11 (0.42%) Tivoli Monitoring
7 10 (0.38%) FortiGate
7 10 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (0.38%) vCenter Server
8 9 (0.35%) Grafana
9 6 (0.23%) Prometheus
9 6 (0.23%) VxRail
10 5 (0.19%) NetBackup
11 4 (0.15%) CEMLI
12 3 (0.12%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 488 (18.78%) SAP
2 347 (13.36%) Microsoft
3 292 (11.24%) Oracle
4 111 (4.27%) ServiceNow
5 61 (2.35%) VMware
6 52 (2.00%) Workday
7 47 (1.81%) Salesforce
8 42 (1.62%) Databricks
9 36 (1.39%) Splunk
10 30 (1.15%) BMC
11 23 (0.89%) Ariba
11 23 (0.89%) Google
11 23 (0.89%) IBM
12 20 (0.77%) OpenText
12 20 (0.77%) Palo Alto
13 18 (0.69%) Adobe
14 16 (0.62%) JD Edwards
15 15 (0.58%) Cisco
16 14 (0.54%) Dell
16 14 (0.54%) Sage