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 1 January 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 29 29 31
Rank change year-on-year 0 +2 +24
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 2,013 1,726 2,113
As % of all contract jobs in England 6.35% 6.14% 5.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.95% 6.61% 6.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,185 1,016 1,254
10th Percentile £400 £413 £405
25th Percentile £470 £488 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.39%
75th Percentile £645 £645 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £738
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 13 33
10th Percentile £40.20 £55.00 £44.00
25th Percentile £60.13 £61.50 £58.75
Median hourly rate £73.50 £72.38 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year +1.55% +14.35% -12.10%
75th Percentile £81.25 £82.50 £80.00
90th Percentile £85.05 £87.25 £90.20
UK median hourly rate £73.25 £70.19 £66.44
% change year-on-year +4.36% +5.64% -5.09%

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 28,978 26,109 33,858
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.40% 92.88% 93.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,528 16,189 23,132
10th Percentile £300 £300 £281
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,750 814 1,430
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.91 £14.54
25th Percentile £18.26 £21.23 £20.00
Median hourly rate £27.21 £35.00 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -22.26% -23.71% +40.01%
75th Percentile £61.23 £64.73 £65.00
90th Percentile £73.41 £74.31 £77.00
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £32.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.00% -27.78% +41.93%

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 1 January 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 1 January 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 1 January 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 -1 935 £575 +4.55% 553
South East 0 283 £550 -4.35% 256
North of England -5 282 £598 +8.73% 174
North West +4 173 £623 +14.75% 95
Midlands -21 162 £550 +4.76% 85
West Midlands -12 130 £550 +4.76% 58
South West +11 113 £590 +7.27% 137
Yorkshire -2 101 £550 -8.33% 65
East of England +6 97 £550 -2.22% 37
East Midlands -27 31 £538 +1.42% 26
North East -11 8 £620 +3.33% 15
South Coast - 2 £525 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 January 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.

1 523 (25.98%) Security Cleared
2 514 (25.53%) SAP
3 427 (21.21%) SC Cleared
4 270 (13.41%) Migration
5 268 (13.31%) SAP S/4HANA
6 255 (12.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 246 (12.22%) Oracle
8 244 (12.12%) Problem-Solving
9 243 (12.07%) Stakeholder Management
10 220 (10.93%) Microsoft
11 192 (9.54%) Azure
12 171 (8.49%) Agile
13 162 (8.05%) Workshop Facilitation
14 143 (7.10%) ERP
15 142 (7.05%) Roadmaps
16 132 (6.56%) SQL
17 128 (6.36%) User Acceptance Testing
18 122 (6.06%) Analytics
19 118 (5.86%) Cybersecurity
20 115 (5.71%) Business Intelligence
21 112 (5.56%) Data Migration
22 109 (5.41%) Knowledge Transfer
23 101 (5.02%) Validation
24 99 (4.92%) AWS
25 97 (4.82%) Risk Management
26 95 (4.72%) DevOps
27 93 (4.62%) Python
28 92 (4.57%) Power Platform
29 88 (4.37%) AI
29 88 (4.37%) Continuous Improvement

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 53 (2.63%) SharePoint
2 29 (1.44%) Microsoft Exchange
3 27 (1.34%) Confluence
4 9 (0.45%) WebLogic
4 9 (0.45%) WebSphere
5 5 (0.25%) CMS
5 5 (0.25%) NetWeaver
6 4 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.15%) Apache
7 3 (0.15%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.15%) IIS
7 3 (0.15%) MTS
7 3 (0.15%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.099%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.099%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.050%) Oracle Service Bus
9 1 (0.050%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.050%) SAS
9 1 (0.050%) Tomcat
Applications
1 30 (1.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (0.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.45%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.25%) Oracle Smart View
6 4 (0.20%) Navisworks
6 4 (0.20%) Revit
7 3 (0.15%) ProjectWise
7 3 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.050%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.050%) CPLEX
8 1 (0.050%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.050%) InVision
8 1 (0.050%) Sketch
8 1 (0.050%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 268 (13.31%) SAP S/4HANA
2 68 (3.38%) Oracle EBS
3 55 (2.73%) Oracle Payables
4 46 (2.29%) Oracle Receivables
5 43 (2.14%) Oracle General Ledger
6 41 (2.04%) Oracle Cash Management
6 41 (2.04%) Oracle EBS R12
6 41 (2.04%) SAP FI
7 40 (1.99%) SAP EWM
8 37 (1.84%) SAP HCM
9 35 (1.74%) SAP MM
10 32 (1.59%) Dynamics CRM
11 31 (1.54%) Oracle Assets
12 29 (1.44%) SAP CO
12 29 (1.44%) SAP Payroll
12 29 (1.44%) SAP WM
13 27 (1.34%) SAP FI/CO
14 23 (1.14%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
14 23 (1.14%) SAP HR
14 23 (1.14%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 192 (9.54%) Azure
2 99 (4.92%) AWS
3 92 (4.57%) Power Platform
4 88 (4.37%) Dynamics 365
5 69 (3.43%) Microsoft 365
5 69 (3.43%) OCI
6 63 (3.13%) GCP
7 52 (2.58%) SaaS
8 44 (2.19%) Entra ID
9 31 (1.54%) Power Automate
10 30 (1.49%) SuccessFactors
11 25 (1.24%) Azure DevOps
12 23 (1.14%) PowerApps
13 20 (0.99%) OneDrive
14 19 (0.94%) GitHub
15 18 (0.89%) Microsoft Copilot
16 16 (0.79%) SAP Commerce Cloud
17 14 (0.70%) Microsoft Purview
18 12 (0.60%) GitHub Actions
19 11 (0.55%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 43 (2.14%) Firewall
2 16 (0.79%) DNS
2 16 (0.79%) Network Security
2 16 (0.79%) VPN
3 12 (0.60%) Kerberos
4 10 (0.50%) DHCP
4 10 (0.50%) SSH
4 10 (0.50%) WAN
5 9 (0.45%) HTTP
5 9 (0.45%) TCP/IP
6 8 (0.40%) SD-WAN
6 8 (0.40%) SSL
7 7 (0.35%) Cisco IPT
8 6 (0.30%) BGP
8 6 (0.30%) SMS
8 6 (0.30%) VSAN
9 5 (0.25%) LAN
9 5 (0.25%) OSPF
9 5 (0.25%) SAN
9 5 (0.25%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (3.43%) Power BI
2 38 (1.89%) SAP HANA
3 33 (1.64%) Oracle Reports
4 30 (1.49%) SQL Server
5 21 (1.04%) Metadata
6 20 (0.99%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 17 (0.84%) SAP BW
8 14 (0.70%) Data Warehouse
9 11 (0.55%) PostgreSQL
10 10 (0.50%) DB2
10 10 (0.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 8 (0.40%) NoSQL
11 8 (0.40%) Tableau
12 7 (0.35%) Oracle Database
13 6 (0.30%) DynamoDB
13 6 (0.30%) SAP Data Services
14 5 (0.25%) Data Lake
14 5 (0.25%) MongoDB
14 5 (0.25%) Oracle ODI
14 5 (0.25%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 54 (2.68%) JIRA
2 22 (1.09%) Jenkins
3 18 (0.89%) Git
4 17 (0.84%) GitLab
5 10 (0.50%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.40%) Hudson
7 4 (0.20%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.20%) LSMW
7 4 (0.20%) Oracle APEX
7 4 (0.20%) Postman
8 3 (0.15%) Cypress.io
8 3 (0.15%) JUnit
9 2 (0.099%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.099%) Mockito
9 2 (0.099%) Selenium
9 2 (0.099%) Snyk
9 2 (0.099%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.099%) TeamCity
9 2 (0.099%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.050%) Octopus Deploy
General
1 572 (28.42%) Social Skills
2 483 (23.99%) Finance
3 197 (9.79%) Public Sector
4 173 (8.59%) Analytical Skills
5 112 (5.56%) Manufacturing
6 69 (3.43%) Banking
7 63 (3.13%) Documentation Skills
8 55 (2.73%) Marketing
9 54 (2.68%) Presentation Skills
10 45 (2.24%) Legal
11 44 (2.19%) Billing
12 37 (1.84%) Telecoms
13 36 (1.79%) General Ledger
14 28 (1.39%) Retail
15 23 (1.14%) Law
15 23 (1.14%) Pharmaceutical
16 22 (1.09%) Electronics
17 20 (0.99%) Financial Institution
18 19 (0.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 15 (0.75%) Front Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (3.83%) Oracle Fusion
2 52 (2.58%) REST
2 52 (2.58%) SAP Fiori
3 40 (1.99%) Web Services
4 37 (1.84%) Node.js
5 32 (1.59%) SOAP
6 27 (1.34%) XML
7 26 (1.29%) HTML
8 25 (1.24%) LDAP
9 23 (1.14%) SAP TM
10 22 (1.09%) Middleware
11 18 (0.89%) .NET
11 18 (0.89%) GraphQL
12 17 (0.84%) BAPI
13 15 (0.75%) SAP Basis
14 14 (0.70%) CSS
15 13 (0.65%) EDI
15 13 (0.65%) JSON
15 13 (0.65%) Playwright
16 12 (0.60%) Vitest
Miscellaneous
1 64 (3.18%) Onboarding
2 52 (2.58%) Legacy Systems
3 41 (2.04%) Product Ownership
4 32 (1.59%) Cloud Native
4 32 (1.59%) Security Posture
5 26 (1.29%) Data Centre
6 24 (1.19%) Data Protection Act
7 23 (1.14%) Replication
8 20 (0.99%) Management Information System
9 15 (0.75%) Data Structures
9 15 (0.75%) Operational Technology
10 14 (0.70%) Greenfield Project
10 14 (0.70%) Hybrid Cloud
11 12 (0.60%) AI Agents
11 12 (0.60%) NHS
11 12 (0.60%) SCADA
12 11 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
12 11 (0.55%) FMCG
12 11 (0.55%) IoT
12 11 (0.55%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 61 (3.03%) Windows
2 38 (1.89%) Linux
3 12 (0.60%) Windows Server
4 11 (0.55%) Unix
5 9 (0.45%) Mac OS
5 9 (0.45%) Windows 10
6 7 (0.35%) AIX
6 7 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (0.35%) Solaris
7 4 (0.20%) VMS
8 2 (0.099%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.099%) CentOS
8 2 (0.099%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 2 (0.099%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2003
8 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.050%) tvOS
9 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.050%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 270 (13.41%) Migration
2 255 (12.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 244 (12.12%) Problem-Solving
4 243 (12.07%) Stakeholder Management
5 171 (8.49%) Agile
6 162 (8.05%) Workshop Facilitation
7 143 (7.10%) ERP
8 142 (7.05%) Roadmaps
9 128 (6.36%) User Acceptance Testing
10 122 (6.06%) Analytics
11 118 (5.86%) Cybersecurity
12 115 (5.71%) Business Intelligence
13 112 (5.56%) Data Migration
14 109 (5.41%) Knowledge Transfer
15 101 (5.02%) Validation
16 97 (4.82%) Risk Management
17 95 (4.72%) DevOps
18 88 (4.37%) AI
18 88 (4.37%) Continuous Improvement
19 86 (4.27%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 132 (6.56%) SQL
2 93 (4.62%) Python
3 64 (3.18%) PowerShell
4 60 (2.98%) ABAP
5 52 (2.58%) JavaScript
6 44 (2.19%) Java
7 25 (1.24%) TypeScript
8 24 (1.19%) PL/SQL
9 17 (0.84%) Groovy
10 16 (0.79%) Bash
11 13 (0.65%) C++
12 9 (0.45%) C
12 9 (0.45%) Kusto Query Language
13 8 (0.40%) C#
13 8 (0.40%) PHP
14 6 (0.30%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.25%) Bicep
15 5 (0.25%) R
15 5 (0.25%) Shell Script
16 4 (0.20%) COBOL
Qualifications
1 523 (25.98%) Security Cleared
2 427 (21.21%) SC Cleared
3 83 (4.12%) Degree
4 73 (3.63%) DV Cleared
5 62 (3.08%) BPSS Clearance
6 60 (2.98%) CISSP
7 44 (2.19%) CISM
8 26 (1.29%) SAP Certification
9 19 (0.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 17 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
11 13 (0.65%) Cisco Certification
12 12 (0.60%) CIMA
12 12 (0.60%) Master's Degree
13 11 (0.55%) ACCA
13 11 (0.55%) CESG Certified Professional
13 11 (0.55%) Computer Science Degree
14 10 (0.50%) AWS Certification
14 10 (0.50%) CISA
15 7 (0.35%) CCNP
15 7 (0.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (3.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 62 (3.08%) GDPR
2 62 (3.08%) NIST
3 36 (1.79%) QA
4 33 (1.64%) GRC
5 31 (1.54%) Data Quality
6 21 (1.04%) NCSC
7 15 (0.75%) Actionable Recommendations
8 13 (0.65%) SLA
9 12 (0.60%) PCI DSS
10 11 (0.55%) PERC
11 10 (0.50%) COBIT
11 10 (0.50%) PMO
11 10 (0.50%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 7 (0.35%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
12 7 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 7 (0.35%) IFRS
13 6 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 6 (0.30%) SOC 2
System Software
1 65 (3.23%) Active Directory
2 33 (1.64%) Docker
3 28 (1.39%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (0.89%) VMware NSX
5 11 (0.55%) vSphere
6 8 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.099%) Firmware
8 2 (0.099%) NDS
8 2 (0.099%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 2 (0.099%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 2 (0.099%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.050%) Ceph
9 1 (0.050%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.050%) IAG
9 1 (0.050%) KVM
9 1 (0.050%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.050%) QEMU
9 1 (0.050%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.050%) UAG
Systems Management
1 50 (2.48%) Kubernetes
2 37 (1.84%) Terraform
3 22 (1.09%) Microsoft Intune
4 21 (1.04%) Ansible
5 15 (0.75%) vRealize
6 14 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (0.60%) Grafana
8 10 (0.50%) PingFederate
9 9 (0.45%) Prometheus
9 9 (0.45%) SCCM
10 6 (0.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 3 (0.15%) CASB
11 3 (0.15%) FortiGate
11 3 (0.15%) Istio
11 3 (0.15%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 2 (0.099%) FTK
12 2 (0.099%) Nessus
12 2 (0.099%) NetBackup
12 2 (0.099%) Red Hat Satellite
12 2 (0.099%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 514 (25.53%) SAP
2 246 (12.22%) Oracle
3 220 (10.93%) Microsoft
4 64 (3.18%) ServiceNow
4 64 (3.18%) VMware
5 51 (2.53%) Workday
6 46 (2.29%) Cisco
7 45 (2.24%) Salesforce
8 37 (1.84%) CyberArk
9 34 (1.69%) Aruba
10 30 (1.49%) Adobe
11 29 (1.44%) Google
12 23 (1.14%) Ariba
12 23 (1.14%) Dynatrace
13 17 (0.84%) OpenText
14 14 (0.70%) Remedy
15 11 (0.55%) Databricks
15 11 (0.55%) EMC
15 11 (0.55%) IFS
16 10 (0.50%) Dell