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 30 July 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 33 36 27
Rank change year-on-year +3 -9 +16
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,360 759 1,130
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.03% 5.03% 5.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.45% 5.56% 6.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 758 474 731
10th Percentile £401 £400 £425
25th Percentile £455 £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 72 20 19
10th Percentile £52.50 £29.31 £45.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £49.50 £55.47
Median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -25.81% +25.81% -4.99%
75th Percentile £77.05 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £86.00 £81.73 £68.34
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -17.86% +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 24,942 13,645 17,460
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.19% 90.45% 92.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,157 8,419 10,677
10th Percentile £306 £217 £215
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 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,921 1,181 1,886
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.50 £13.62
25th Percentile £21.14 £16.50 £18.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +7.50%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +73.38% -40.82% -1.88%

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 30 July 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 30 July 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 30 July 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 0 391 £525 -4.55% 218
North of England -15 292 £550 +2.04% 177
Midlands -1 260 £500 -9.09% 75
South West +23 216 £556 -3.30% 113
West Midlands +11 187 £500 -11.11% 53
North West -13 173 £549 -0.23% 117
Scotland +32 102 £425 -12.82% 25
Yorkshire -14 100 £544 +14.47% 47
East of England -14 82 £550 - 35
East Midlands -1 64 £500 -9.09% 22
Wales -7 29 £550 +10.00% 11
North East -44 20 £750 +39.66% 14
Northern Ireland -9 1 £450 -13.46% 20
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 30 July 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.

1 333 (24.49%) Security Cleared
2 300 (22.06%) SAP
3 224 (16.47%) SC Cleared
4 157 (11.54%) Microsoft
5 155 (11.40%) Stakeholder Management
6 148 (10.88%) Migration
7 143 (10.51%) ERP
8 140 (10.29%) Oracle
9 137 (10.07%) Azure
10 129 (9.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 123 (9.04%) Problem-Solving
12 122 (8.97%) SQL
13 116 (8.53%) Continuous Improvement
14 111 (8.16%) Cybersecurity
15 95 (6.99%) Validation
16 94 (6.91%) SAP S/4HANA
17 88 (6.47%) DV Cleared
18 87 (6.40%) User Acceptance Testing
18 87 (6.40%) Workshop Facilitation
19 84 (6.18%) Roadmaps
20 83 (6.10%) Agile
21 79 (5.81%) Data Migration
22 73 (5.37%) AWS
23 63 (4.63%) Analytics
24 62 (4.56%) Risk Management
25 58 (4.26%) CISSP
25 58 (4.26%) Python
26 57 (4.19%) Power Platform
27 56 (4.12%) Business Intelligence
28 53 (3.90%) 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 (2.06%) Confluence
2 18 (1.32%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.66%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.59%) 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 (0.074%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.074%) SAS
7 1 (0.074%) Tomcat
Applications
1 46 (3.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (1.91%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.66%) 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 (0.074%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 94 (6.91%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (2.43%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.69%) Oracle EBS
3 23 (1.69%) Oracle ERP
3 23 (1.69%) SAP MM
4 21 (1.54%) SAP EWM
5 18 (1.32%) Oracle Payables
5 18 (1.32%) SAP Payroll
6 17 (1.25%) Teamcenter
7 16 (1.18%) SAP FI
8 15 (1.10%) Oracle Receivables
8 15 (1.10%) SAP HCM
8 15 (1.10%) SAP SD
9 14 (1.03%) SAP QM
10 11 (0.81%) NetSuite
10 11 (0.81%) SAP CO
10 11 (0.81%) SAP PP
10 11 (0.81%) Workday HCM
11 10 (0.74%) SAP FI/CO
12 9 (0.66%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 137 (10.07%) Azure
2 73 (5.37%) AWS
3 57 (4.19%) Power Platform
4 53 (3.90%) Dynamics 365
5 46 (3.38%) OCI
5 46 (3.38%) SuccessFactors
6 43 (3.16%) GCP
7 32 (2.35%) Microsoft 365
8 24 (1.76%) Entra ID
9 23 (1.69%) Power Automate
10 17 (1.25%) SaaS
11 12 (0.88%) Microsoft Copilot
11 12 (0.88%) Oracle Service Cloud
11 12 (0.88%) PowerApps
12 11 (0.81%) Azure DevOps
12 11 (0.81%) GitHub
12 11 (0.81%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 9 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
14 8 (0.59%) Azure Monitor
15 7 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.13%) Network Security
2 24 (1.76%) Firewall
3 20 (1.47%) SNMP
4 12 (0.88%) BGP
5 10 (0.74%) WAN
6 8 (0.59%) VPN
7 7 (0.51%) LAN
8 6 (0.44%) FTP
8 6 (0.44%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.44%) VSAN
9 5 (0.37%) DNS
9 5 (0.37%) HTTP
9 5 (0.37%) 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 35 (2.57%) Power BI
2 28 (2.06%) Oracle Reports
3 22 (1.62%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.25%) Oracle ODI
5 15 (1.10%) SAP BW
6 14 (1.03%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 14 (1.03%) SQL Server
7 11 (0.81%) Tableau
8 10 (0.74%) Metadata
9 9 (0.66%) SAP Data Services
10 7 (0.51%) BusinessObjects
11 6 (0.44%) Oracle Database
12 5 (0.37%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.37%) NonStop SQL
12 5 (0.37%) Relational Database
13 4 (0.29%) Power Query
14 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
14 3 (0.22%) NoSQL
14 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
14 3 (0.22%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 47 (3.46%) JIRA
2 13 (0.96%) Hudson
3 10 (0.74%) Git
4 7 (0.51%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.51%) Oracle Forms
5 3 (0.22%) Postman
5 3 (0.22%) Toad
5 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
6 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
6 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
6 2 (0.15%) TestRail
6 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
7 1 (0.074%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.074%) GitLab
7 1 (0.074%) JMeter
7 1 (0.074%) ScriptRunner
7 1 (0.074%) tSQLt
7 1 (0.074%) Yeoman
General
1 302 (22.21%) Social Skills
2 248 (18.24%) Finance
3 117 (8.60%) Analytical Skills
4 107 (7.87%) Public Sector
5 48 (3.53%) Manufacturing
6 36 (2.65%) Legal
7 32 (2.35%) Banking
8 28 (2.06%) Presentation Skills
9 26 (1.91%) Telecoms
10 25 (1.84%) General Ledger
11 22 (1.62%) Documentation Skills
12 21 (1.54%) Aerospace
13 20 (1.47%) Billing
14 17 (1.25%) Retail
15 15 (1.10%) Marketing
16 14 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
16 14 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
17 9 (0.66%) Advertising
17 9 (0.66%) Financial Institution
18 8 (0.59%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (3.24%) REST
2 42 (3.09%) XML
3 25 (1.84%) Oracle Fusion
4 22 (1.62%) SOAP
5 15 (1.10%) Middleware
6 12 (0.88%) Web Services
7 11 (0.81%) SAP Fiori
8 9 (0.66%) SAP PI
9 7 (0.51%) IDoc
9 7 (0.51%) JSON
9 7 (0.51%) LDAP
10 6 (0.44%) JDBC
10 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
11 5 (0.37%) OpenTelemetry
11 5 (0.37%) RESTful
11 5 (0.37%) SailPoint
11 5 (0.37%) SAP Basis
12 4 (0.29%) AngularJS
12 4 (0.29%) eBPF
12 4 (0.29%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 37 (2.72%) Onboarding
2 33 (2.43%) Data Protection Act
3 23 (1.69%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.18%) CMDB
4 16 (1.18%) Operational Technology
5 14 (1.03%) Replication
6 12 (0.88%) Product Ownership
7 11 (0.81%) AI Agents
7 11 (0.81%) Data Centre
7 11 (0.81%) Data Structures
8 10 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
8 10 (0.74%) Cloud Native
8 10 (0.74%) Management Information System
9 9 (0.66%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (0.66%) FMCG
9 9 (0.66%) Legacy Systems
9 9 (0.66%) Private Cloud
9 9 (0.66%) Public Cloud
10 8 (0.59%) Security Operations Centre
11 7 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 51 (3.75%) Windows
2 42 (3.09%) Linux
3 17 (1.25%) Solaris
4 14 (1.03%) AIX
5 10 (0.74%) Unix
6 9 (0.66%) VMS
7 3 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.22%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.074%) Android
8 1 (0.074%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.074%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.074%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.074%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 155 (11.40%) Stakeholder Management
2 148 (10.88%) Migration
3 143 (10.51%) ERP
4 129 (9.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 123 (9.04%) Problem-Solving
6 116 (8.53%) Continuous Improvement
7 111 (8.16%) Cybersecurity
8 95 (6.99%) Validation
9 87 (6.40%) User Acceptance Testing
9 87 (6.40%) Workshop Facilitation
10 84 (6.18%) Roadmaps
11 83 (6.10%) Agile
12 79 (5.81%) Data Migration
13 63 (4.63%) Analytics
14 62 (4.56%) Risk Management
15 56 (4.12%) Business Intelligence
16 53 (3.90%) AI
17 52 (3.82%) Data Protection
18 51 (3.75%) Translating Business Requirements
18 51 (3.75%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 122 (8.97%) SQL
2 58 (4.26%) Python
3 30 (2.21%) T-SQL
4 29 (2.13%) ABAP
4 29 (2.13%) PowerShell
5 26 (1.91%) PL/SQL
6 19 (1.40%) JavaScript
7 13 (0.96%) Java
7 13 (0.96%) Search Processing Language
8 12 (0.88%) Bash
9 10 (0.74%) Kusto Query Language
10 6 (0.44%) C#
10 6 (0.44%) R
11 2 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.15%) Perl
11 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.15%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.15%) VBScript
12 1 (0.074%) SOQL
12 1 (0.074%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 333 (24.49%) Security Cleared
2 224 (16.47%) SC Cleared
3 88 (6.47%) DV Cleared
4 58 (4.26%) CISSP
5 45 (3.31%) BPSS Clearance
5 45 (3.31%) CISM
6 32 (2.35%) Cisco Certification
7 30 (2.21%) Degree
8 26 (1.91%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 22 (1.62%) CCSP
10 11 (0.81%) ACCA
10 11 (0.81%) CIMA
10 11 (0.81%) PMP
11 10 (0.74%) CEH
12 9 (0.66%) OSCP
13 8 (0.59%) Azure Certification
13 8 (0.59%) CompTIA Security+
14 7 (0.51%) CRISC
14 7 (0.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 6 (0.44%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (3.68%) NIST
2 44 (3.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 37 (2.72%) GRC
4 31 (2.28%) Data Quality
5 23 (1.69%) QA
6 18 (1.32%) GDPR
7 14 (1.03%) NCSC
8 13 (0.96%) PCI DSS
9 12 (0.88%) Actionable Recommendations
10 11 (0.81%) SLA
11 8 (0.59%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.44%) COBIT
13 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
13 6 (0.44%) JSP 440
13 6 (0.44%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.44%) PMO
13 6 (0.44%) RMADS
14 4 (0.29%) WCAG
15 2 (0.15%) GxP
System Software
1 32 (2.35%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.18%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.03%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.96%) vSphere
6 4 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.22%) Docker
7 3 (0.22%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.15%) NFS
8 2 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.074%) Firmware
9 1 (0.074%) IAG
9 1 (0.074%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.074%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 22 (1.62%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.54%) Terraform
3 20 (1.47%) Ansible
4 13 (0.96%) Nagios
4 13 (0.96%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.88%) Netcool
5 12 (0.88%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.81%) OpenView
6 11 (0.81%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 11 (0.81%) vRealize
7 10 (0.74%) vCenter Server
8 7 (0.51%) Grafana
9 6 (0.44%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.44%) NetBackup
10 5 (0.37%) VxRail
11 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
11 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Intune
12 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Manager
Vendors
1 300 (22.06%) SAP
2 157 (11.54%) Microsoft
3 140 (10.29%) Oracle
4 48 (3.53%) ServiceNow
5 35 (2.57%) Siemens
6 32 (2.35%) VMware
7 29 (2.13%) Splunk
8 17 (1.25%) BMC
9 16 (1.18%) IBM
10 15 (1.10%) Ariba
10 15 (1.10%) Salesforce
11 14 (1.03%) Databricks
11 14 (1.03%) JD Edwards
11 14 (1.03%) Workday
12 13 (0.96%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.88%) HP
14 10 (0.74%) Google
14 10 (0.74%) IFS
15 9 (0.66%) Informatica
15 9 (0.66%) Veeam