Consultant Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Consultant
UK > UK excluding London

The median Consultant daily rate in the UK excluding London is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 August 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 33 36 26
Rank change year-on-year +3 -10 +17
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,375 767 1,113
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.06% 5.05% 6.03%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.49% 5.59% 6.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 773 476 715
10th Percentile £400 £404 £422
25th Percentile £450 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +9.52%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £750
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 21 18
10th Percentile £51.30 £29.51 £43.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £51.25 £55.24
Median hourly rate £60.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -22.58% +25.81% -4.99%
75th Percentile £78.70 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £86.09 - £68.51
UK median hourly rate £59.00 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -15.71% +13.64% -5.23%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 25,068 13,726 16,993
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.17% 90.37% 92.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,183 8,432 10,367
10th Percentile £305 £215 £220
25th Percentile £410 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £684
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,970 1,207 1,773
10th Percentile £14.65 £13.32 £14.00
25th Percentile £20.69 £16.50 £18.50
Median hourly rate £44.10 £25.15 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year +75.33% -42.71% +17.07%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%

Consultant
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Consultant job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Consultant in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 5 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Consultant in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Consultant job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Consultant in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 5 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Consultant in the UK excluding London

Consultant
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Consultant within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 5 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
South East -2 404 £525 -4.55% 283
North of England -7 298 £550 +2.18% 344
Midlands +1 260 £500 -9.09% 127
South West +17 209 £550 -7.56% 180
West Midlands +15 188 £500 -9.09% 92
North West -8 177 £550 - 254
Scotland +36 107 £425 -10.53% 55
Yorkshire -15 100 £538 +13.16% 72
East of England -16 80 £551 +0.18% 64
East Midlands -2 63 £500 -9.09% 35
Wales -7 29 £550 +10.00% 13
North East -36 20 £750 +39.66% 19
Northern Ireland -3 1 £450 -13.46% 45
Consultant
UK

Consultant Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 5 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 UK excluding London region featuring Consultant in the job title.

1 349 (25.38%) Security Cleared
2 300 (21.82%) SAP
3 229 (16.65%) SC Cleared
4 163 (11.85%) Microsoft
5 161 (11.71%) Stakeholder Management
6 150 (10.91%) Migration
7 146 (10.62%) Oracle
8 143 (10.40%) ERP
9 134 (9.75%) Azure
10 130 (9.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 126 (9.16%) SQL
12 125 (9.09%) Problem-Solving
13 117 (8.51%) Continuous Improvement
14 112 (8.15%) Cybersecurity
15 97 (7.05%) Validation
16 96 (6.98%) DV Cleared
17 92 (6.69%) SAP S/4HANA
18 91 (6.62%) Workshop Facilitation
19 88 (6.40%) User Acceptance Testing
20 85 (6.18%) Agile
21 83 (6.04%) Roadmaps
22 78 (5.67%) Data Migration
23 75 (5.45%) AWS
24 71 (5.16%) Analytics
25 64 (4.65%) Risk Management
26 63 (4.58%) Business Intelligence
27 60 (4.36%) CISSP
27 60 (4.36%) Power Platform
28 57 (4.15%) Python
29 55 (4.00%) AI

Consultant Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 28 (2.04%) Confluence
2 18 (1.31%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.65%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.58%) WebLogic
5 7 (0.51%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.22%) Apache
6 3 (0.22%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.22%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 1 (0.073%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.073%) SAS
7 1 (0.073%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.073%) Tomcat
Applications
1 47 (3.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (1.89%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.65%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.15%) Lectora
6 2 (0.15%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.073%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 92 (6.69%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (2.40%) SAP PSCD
3 25 (1.82%) Oracle ERP
4 23 (1.67%) SAP MM
5 22 (1.60%) Oracle EBS
6 21 (1.53%) SAP EWM
7 19 (1.38%) Oracle Payables
8 17 (1.24%) SAP FI
8 17 (1.24%) SAP Payroll
9 16 (1.16%) Oracle Receivables
10 15 (1.09%) SAP QM
10 15 (1.09%) Teamcenter
11 14 (1.02%) SAP SD
12 13 (0.95%) SAP HCM
12 13 (0.95%) Workday HCM
13 11 (0.80%) NetSuite
13 11 (0.80%) SAP CO
13 11 (0.80%) SAP PP
14 10 (0.73%) SAP FI/CO
15 9 (0.65%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 134 (9.75%) Azure
2 75 (5.45%) AWS
3 60 (4.36%) Power Platform
4 54 (3.93%) Dynamics 365
5 49 (3.56%) OCI
6 48 (3.49%) SuccessFactors
7 45 (3.27%) GCP
8 34 (2.47%) Microsoft 365
9 25 (1.82%) Entra ID
10 24 (1.75%) Power Automate
11 16 (1.16%) SaaS
12 12 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
12 12 (0.87%) Microsoft Copilot
12 12 (0.87%) Oracle Service Cloud
12 12 (0.87%) PowerApps
13 11 (0.80%) GitHub
13 11 (0.80%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.65%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
16 7 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 30 (2.18%) Network Security
2 24 (1.75%) Firewall
3 20 (1.45%) SNMP
4 12 (0.87%) BGP
5 10 (0.73%) WAN
6 9 (0.65%) VPN
7 7 (0.51%) LAN
8 6 (0.44%) FTP
8 6 (0.44%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.44%) VSAN
9 5 (0.36%) DNS
9 5 (0.36%) HTTP
9 5 (0.36%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (0.29%) SAN
10 4 (0.29%) Wireless
11 3 (0.22%) Ethernet VPN
11 3 (0.22%) MPLS
11 3 (0.22%) SMS
11 3 (0.22%) TACACS
11 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (2.76%) Power BI
2 31 (2.25%) Oracle Reports
3 21 (1.53%) SAP HANA
4 18 (1.31%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 17 (1.24%) Oracle ODI
6 16 (1.16%) SAP BW
7 15 (1.09%) SQL Server
8 11 (0.80%) Metadata
8 11 (0.80%) Tableau
9 9 (0.65%) SAP Data Services
10 8 (0.58%) BusinessObjects
11 6 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
11 6 (0.44%) Oracle Database
11 6 (0.44%) Relational Database
12 5 (0.36%) NonStop SQL
13 4 (0.29%) Power Query
14 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
14 3 (0.22%) Hadoop
14 3 (0.22%) NoSQL
14 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 49 (3.56%) JIRA
2 13 (0.95%) Hudson
3 11 (0.80%) Git
4 8 (0.58%) Oracle Forms
5 7 (0.51%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.22%) Postman
6 3 (0.22%) Toad
6 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.15%) TestRail
7 2 (0.15%) tSQLt
7 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.073%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.073%) GitLab
8 1 (0.073%) JMeter
8 1 (0.073%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.073%) Yeoman
General
1 306 (22.25%) Social Skills
2 260 (18.91%) Finance
3 120 (8.73%) Analytical Skills
4 107 (7.78%) Public Sector
5 48 (3.49%) Manufacturing
6 35 (2.55%) Legal
7 33 (2.40%) Banking
8 29 (2.11%) Presentation Skills
9 26 (1.89%) General Ledger
9 26 (1.89%) Telecoms
10 23 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
11 20 (1.45%) Aerospace
11 20 (1.45%) Billing
12 17 (1.24%) Retail
13 15 (1.09%) Influencing Skills
13 15 (1.09%) Marketing
14 14 (1.02%) Organisational Skills
15 9 (0.65%) Advertising
15 9 (0.65%) Financial Institution
16 8 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (3.35%) REST
2 42 (3.05%) XML
3 27 (1.96%) Oracle Fusion
4 24 (1.75%) SOAP
5 15 (1.09%) Middleware
6 12 (0.87%) Web Services
7 11 (0.80%) SAP Fiori
8 9 (0.65%) SAP PI
9 8 (0.58%) LDAP
10 7 (0.51%) IDoc
10 7 (0.51%) JSON
11 6 (0.44%) JDBC
11 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
11 6 (0.44%) SailPoint
12 5 (0.36%) OpenTelemetry
12 5 (0.36%) RESTful
12 5 (0.36%) SAP Basis
13 4 (0.29%) AngularJS
13 4 (0.29%) eBPF
13 4 (0.29%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 41 (2.98%) Onboarding
2 33 (2.40%) Data Protection Act
3 23 (1.67%) Security Posture
4 18 (1.31%) CMDB
5 16 (1.16%) Operational Technology
6 14 (1.02%) Product Ownership
6 14 (1.02%) Replication
7 11 (0.80%) AI Agents
7 11 (0.80%) Data Centre
7 11 (0.80%) Data Structures
8 10 (0.73%) Analytical Mindset
8 10 (0.73%) Cloud Native
8 10 (0.73%) Legacy Systems
8 10 (0.73%) Management Information System
9 9 (0.65%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (0.65%) FMCG
9 9 (0.65%) Private Cloud
9 9 (0.65%) Public Cloud
10 8 (0.58%) Security Operations Centre
11 7 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 51 (3.71%) Windows
2 42 (3.05%) Linux
3 17 (1.24%) Solaris
4 14 (1.02%) AIX
5 10 (0.73%) Unix
6 8 (0.58%) VMS
7 3 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.22%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.073%) Android
8 1 (0.073%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.073%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.073%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.073%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (11.71%) Stakeholder Management
2 150 (10.91%) Migration
3 143 (10.40%) ERP
4 130 (9.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 125 (9.09%) Problem-Solving
6 117 (8.51%) Continuous Improvement
7 112 (8.15%) Cybersecurity
8 97 (7.05%) Validation
9 91 (6.62%) Workshop Facilitation
10 88 (6.40%) User Acceptance Testing
11 85 (6.18%) Agile
12 83 (6.04%) Roadmaps
13 78 (5.67%) Data Migration
14 71 (5.16%) Analytics
15 64 (4.65%) Risk Management
16 63 (4.58%) Business Intelligence
17 55 (4.00%) AI
18 54 (3.93%) Workflow
19 53 (3.85%) Knowledge Transfer
20 52 (3.78%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 126 (9.16%) SQL
2 57 (4.15%) Python
3 31 (2.25%) T-SQL
4 29 (2.11%) PowerShell
5 28 (2.04%) ABAP
6 26 (1.89%) PL/SQL
7 19 (1.38%) JavaScript
8 13 (0.95%) Java
8 13 (0.95%) Search Processing Language
9 12 (0.87%) Bash
10 10 (0.73%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.44%) C#
11 6 (0.44%) R
12 2 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.15%) Groovy
12 2 (0.15%) Perl
12 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.15%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.15%) VBScript
13 1 (0.073%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 349 (25.38%) Security Cleared
2 229 (16.65%) SC Cleared
3 96 (6.98%) DV Cleared
4 60 (4.36%) CISSP
5 45 (3.27%) BPSS Clearance
5 45 (3.27%) CISM
6 33 (2.40%) Cisco Certification
7 31 (2.25%) Degree
8 27 (1.96%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 23 (1.67%) CCSP
10 13 (0.95%) ACCA
10 13 (0.95%) CIMA
11 11 (0.80%) PMP
12 10 (0.73%) CEH
13 9 (0.65%) Azure Certification
13 9 (0.65%) CompTIA Security+
13 9 (0.65%) OSCP
14 8 (0.58%) CRISC
15 7 (0.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 6 (0.44%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (3.56%) NIST
2 43 (3.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 39 (2.84%) GRC
4 33 (2.40%) Data Quality
5 24 (1.75%) QA
6 18 (1.31%) GDPR
7 13 (0.95%) Actionable Recommendations
7 13 (0.95%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.87%) SLA
9 11 (0.80%) NCSC
10 8 (0.58%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
12 6 (0.44%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.44%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.44%) PMO
12 6 (0.44%) RMADS
13 5 (0.36%) COBIT
14 4 (0.29%) WCAG
15 2 (0.15%) GxP
System Software
1 34 (2.47%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.16%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.02%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.95%) vSphere
6 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.29%) Docker
7 4 (0.29%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.15%) NFS
8 2 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.073%) Firmware
9 1 (0.073%) IAG
9 1 (0.073%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.073%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 23 (1.67%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.53%) Terraform
3 20 (1.45%) Ansible
4 13 (0.95%) Nagios
4 13 (0.95%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.87%) Netcool
5 12 (0.87%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.80%) OpenView
6 11 (0.80%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 11 (0.80%) vRealize
7 10 (0.73%) vCenter Server
8 7 (0.51%) Grafana
9 6 (0.44%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.44%) NetBackup
10 5 (0.36%) VxRail
11 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
11 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Management
12 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Manager
Vendors
1 300 (21.82%) SAP
2 163 (11.85%) Microsoft
3 146 (10.62%) Oracle
4 54 (3.93%) ServiceNow
5 32 (2.33%) VMware
6 29 (2.11%) Splunk
7 27 (1.96%) Siemens
8 17 (1.24%) BMC
8 17 (1.24%) Salesforce
9 16 (1.16%) Databricks
9 16 (1.16%) IBM
9 16 (1.16%) Workday
10 15 (1.09%) Ariba
11 14 (1.02%) JD Edwards
12 13 (0.95%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.87%) HP
14 11 (0.80%) Google
15 10 (0.73%) IFS
16 9 (0.65%) Informatica
16 9 (0.65%) Veeam