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 26 August 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 35 26
Rank change year-on-year +3 -9 +13
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,405 794 1,110
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.08% 5.19% 6.11%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.55% 5.76% 6.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 815 499 699
10th Percentile £400 £413 £418
25th Percentile £456 £481 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £553
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -0.54% +5.33%
75th Percentile £638 £630 £638
90th Percentile £719 £700 £746
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 19 20
10th Percentile £51.00 £29.11 £47.75
25th Percentile £54.00 £47.74 £55.00
Median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £83.25 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £101.60 - £70.21
UK median hourly rate £75.50 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -2.58% +25.81% -5.32%

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 25,334 13,791 16,770
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.67% 90.08% 92.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,271 8,448 10,083
10th Percentile £303 £213 £220
25th Percentile £411 £360 £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 £685
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,058 1,273 1,646
10th Percentile £14.54 £13.35 £13.86
25th Percentile £20.31 £16.35 £18.19
Median hourly rate £42.30 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.19% -41.51% +7.50%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £73.25 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% -1.44%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -1 408 £540 -1.82% 90
North of England -5 330 £561 +2.05% 104
Midlands +8 255 £500 -9.09% 65
North West -5 214 £572 -0.61% 68
South West +11 201 £550 -5.58% 108
West Midlands +8 182 £486 -15.54% 48
Scotland +35 121 £450 -5.26% 29
Yorkshire -8 95 £550 +7.32% 27
East of England -18 84 £523 -5.00% 63
East Midlands -3 66 £525 -4.55% 16
Wales -14 25 £550 +10.00% 6
North East -34 20 £750 +38.89% 9
Northern Ireland -7 2 £544 +4.57% 45
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 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.

1 401 (28.54%) Security Cleared
2 320 (22.78%) SAP
3 268 (19.07%) SC Cleared
4 201 (14.31%) Stakeholder Management
5 189 (13.45%) Microsoft
6 156 (11.10%) Migration
7 151 (10.75%) Oracle
8 143 (10.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 128 (9.11%) Cybersecurity
10 127 (9.04%) Problem-Solving
11 125 (8.90%) Continuous Improvement
12 123 (8.75%) Azure
12 123 (8.75%) ERP
12 123 (8.75%) SQL
13 104 (7.40%) Validation
14 103 (7.33%) DV Cleared
15 101 (7.19%) Workshop Facilitation
16 95 (6.76%) SAP S/4HANA
17 91 (6.48%) User Acceptance Testing
18 85 (6.05%) Roadmaps
19 83 (5.91%) Agile
19 83 (5.91%) AWS
20 75 (5.34%) Analytics
21 74 (5.27%) Data Migration
22 70 (4.98%) Knowledge Transfer
22 70 (4.98%) Risk Management
23 62 (4.41%) Requirements Gathering
24 61 (4.34%) Power Platform
24 61 (4.34%) SuccessFactors
25 60 (4.27%) Translating Business Requirements

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 26 (1.85%) Confluence
2 14 (1.00%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.64%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.57%) WebLogic
5 7 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.21%) Apache
6 3 (0.21%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.21%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.21%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.14%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.071%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.071%) SAS
8 1 (0.071%) Tomcat
Applications
1 46 (3.27%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (2.06%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (1.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.57%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.071%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.071%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 95 (6.76%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (2.28%) SAP PSCD
3 26 (1.85%) Oracle ERP
4 22 (1.57%) SAP MM
5 21 (1.49%) Oracle EBS
6 20 (1.42%) Oracle Payables
6 20 (1.42%) SAP EWM
7 17 (1.21%) Oracle Receivables
7 17 (1.21%) SAP FI
7 17 (1.21%) SAP SD
8 16 (1.14%) SAP Payroll
8 16 (1.14%) SAP QM
8 16 (1.14%) Workday HCM
9 13 (0.93%) SAP PP
10 11 (0.78%) NetSuite
10 11 (0.78%) SAP CO
10 11 (0.78%) Teamcenter
11 10 (0.71%) SAP FI/CO
12 9 (0.64%) SAP HCM
12 9 (0.64%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 123 (8.75%) Azure
2 83 (5.91%) AWS
3 61 (4.34%) Power Platform
3 61 (4.34%) SuccessFactors
4 55 (3.91%) Dynamics 365
5 50 (3.56%) GCP
6 45 (3.20%) OCI
7 34 (2.42%) Microsoft 365
8 29 (2.06%) Entra ID
9 24 (1.71%) Power Automate
10 15 (1.07%) SaaS
11 12 (0.85%) Azure DevOps
11 12 (0.85%) Microsoft Copilot
11 12 (0.85%) Oracle Service Cloud
12 11 (0.78%) PowerApps
13 10 (0.71%) GitHub
13 10 (0.71%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.64%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.57%) Azure Monitor
15 8 (0.57%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.21%) Network Security
2 22 (1.57%) Firewall
3 20 (1.42%) SNMP
4 12 (0.85%) BGP
4 12 (0.85%) WAN
5 8 (0.57%) DNS
6 7 (0.50%) LAN
6 7 (0.50%) VPN
6 7 (0.50%) VSAN
6 7 (0.50%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.43%) SAN
7 6 (0.43%) TCP/IP
8 4 (0.28%) DHCP
8 4 (0.28%) HTTP
8 4 (0.28%) Wireless
9 3 (0.21%) FTP
9 3 (0.21%) MPLS
9 3 (0.21%) SMS
9 3 (0.21%) TACACS
9 3 (0.21%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (2.56%) Power BI
2 29 (2.06%) Oracle Reports
3 17 (1.21%) Oracle BI Publisher
3 17 (1.21%) Oracle ODI
4 16 (1.14%) SAP BW
5 14 (1.00%) SAP HANA
5 14 (1.00%) SQL Server
6 11 (0.78%) Metadata
6 11 (0.78%) Tableau
7 9 (0.64%) SAP Data Services
8 8 (0.57%) BusinessObjects
9 7 (0.50%) Oracle Database
9 7 (0.50%) Relational Database
10 6 (0.43%) Data Warehouse
11 5 (0.36%) NonStop SQL
11 5 (0.36%) Power Query
12 3 (0.21%) Amazon Athena
12 3 (0.21%) Delta Lake
12 3 (0.21%) RDBMS
12 3 (0.21%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 48 (3.42%) JIRA
2 11 (0.78%) Git
3 10 (0.71%) Hudson
4 8 (0.57%) Oracle Forms
5 5 (0.36%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.21%) Toad
6 3 (0.21%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.14%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.14%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.14%) Postman
7 2 (0.14%) TestRail
7 2 (0.14%) tSQLt
7 2 (0.14%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.071%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.071%) GitLab
8 1 (0.071%) JMeter
8 1 (0.071%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.071%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.071%) Yeoman
General
1 326 (23.20%) Social Skills
2 264 (18.79%) Finance
3 124 (8.83%) Analytical Skills
4 112 (7.97%) Public Sector
5 56 (3.99%) Manufacturing
6 32 (2.28%) Legal
6 32 (2.28%) Presentation Skills
7 30 (2.14%) Documentation Skills
7 30 (2.14%) General Ledger
8 26 (1.85%) Telecoms
9 25 (1.78%) Banking
10 20 (1.42%) Billing
11 18 (1.28%) Influencing Skills
11 18 (1.28%) Retail
12 16 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
13 12 (0.85%) Aerospace
13 12 (0.85%) Marketing
14 11 (0.78%) Financial Institution
15 9 (0.64%) Advertising
15 9 (0.64%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (3.20%) REST
2 36 (2.56%) XML
3 31 (2.21%) Oracle Fusion
4 22 (1.57%) SOAP
5 21 (1.49%) Terraform
6 16 (1.14%) Middleware
7 14 (1.00%) LDAP
7 14 (1.00%) SailPoint
7 14 (1.00%) SAP Fiori
8 11 (0.78%) Web Services
9 9 (0.64%) SAP PI
10 7 (0.50%) IDoc
11 6 (0.43%) EDI
11 6 (0.43%) Microsoft Graph
12 5 (0.36%) JDBC
12 5 (0.36%) JSON
12 5 (0.36%) OpenTelemetry
12 5 (0.36%) RESTful
12 5 (0.36%) SAP Basis
12 5 (0.36%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 43 (3.06%) Onboarding
2 29 (2.06%) Data Protection Act
3 24 (1.71%) CMDB
4 23 (1.64%) Security Posture
5 19 (1.35%) Operational Technology
6 16 (1.14%) Product Ownership
7 13 (0.93%) Replication
8 12 (0.85%) Management Information System
8 12 (0.85%) PKI
9 11 (0.78%) Cloud Native
9 11 (0.78%) Data Centre
10 10 (0.71%) Data Structures
10 10 (0.71%) Enterprise Software
10 10 (0.71%) Learning Management System
11 9 (0.64%) FMCG
11 9 (0.64%) Hybrid Cloud
11 9 (0.64%) Private Cloud
11 9 (0.64%) Public Cloud
12 8 (0.57%) Analytical Mindset
12 8 (0.57%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 60 (4.27%) Windows
2 46 (3.27%) Linux
3 17 (1.21%) Solaris
4 14 (1.00%) AIX
5 11 (0.78%) Windows Server
6 10 (0.71%) Unix
7 8 (0.57%) VMS
8 3 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.071%) Android
9 1 (0.071%) CoreOS
9 1 (0.071%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.071%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.071%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.071%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 201 (14.31%) Stakeholder Management
2 156 (11.10%) Migration
3 143 (10.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 128 (9.11%) Cybersecurity
5 127 (9.04%) Problem-Solving
6 125 (8.90%) Continuous Improvement
7 123 (8.75%) ERP
8 104 (7.40%) Validation
9 101 (7.19%) Workshop Facilitation
10 91 (6.48%) User Acceptance Testing
11 85 (6.05%) Roadmaps
12 83 (5.91%) Agile
13 75 (5.34%) Analytics
14 74 (5.27%) Data Migration
15 70 (4.98%) Knowledge Transfer
15 70 (4.98%) Risk Management
16 62 (4.41%) Requirements Gathering
17 60 (4.27%) Translating Business Requirements
18 59 (4.20%) Business Intelligence
19 58 (4.13%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 123 (8.75%) SQL
2 56 (3.99%) Python
3 30 (2.14%) PowerShell
4 27 (1.92%) ABAP
4 27 (1.92%) T-SQL
5 24 (1.71%) PL/SQL
6 17 (1.21%) JavaScript
7 15 (1.07%) Search Processing Language
8 13 (0.93%) Java
9 11 (0.78%) Bash
10 10 (0.71%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.43%) C#
11 6 (0.43%) R
12 2 (0.14%) Groovy
12 2 (0.14%) Korn
12 2 (0.14%) Magik
12 2 (0.14%) Perl
12 2 (0.14%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.14%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 401 (28.54%) Security Cleared
2 268 (19.07%) SC Cleared
3 103 (7.33%) DV Cleared
4 59 (4.20%) CISSP
5 49 (3.49%) BPSS Clearance
6 46 (3.27%) CISM
7 34 (2.42%) Cisco Certification
8 29 (2.06%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 28 (1.99%) Degree
10 25 (1.78%) CCSP
11 13 (0.93%) ACCA
11 13 (0.93%) CIMA
12 11 (0.78%) PMP
13 10 (0.71%) CompTIA Security+
14 9 (0.64%) CEH
14 9 (0.64%) CRISC
14 9 (0.64%) OSCP
15 8 (0.57%) Azure Certification
16 7 (0.50%) CCA
16 7 (0.50%) CCSK
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (3.49%) NIST
2 47 (3.35%) GRC
3 42 (2.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 35 (2.49%) Data Quality
5 23 (1.64%) QA
6 16 (1.14%) GDPR
6 16 (1.14%) SLA
7 15 (1.07%) NCSC
8 13 (0.93%) Actionable Recommendations
9 12 (0.85%) PCI DSS
10 11 (0.78%) PMO
11 9 (0.64%) Accessibility
12 6 (0.43%) Def Stans
12 6 (0.43%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.43%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.43%) RMADS
12 6 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 5 (0.36%) COBIT
14 4 (0.28%) WCAG
15 3 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 46 (3.27%) Active Directory
2 25 (1.78%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.14%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.00%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.93%) vSphere
6 9 (0.64%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.28%) Docker
9 2 (0.14%) IAG
9 2 (0.14%) NFS
10 1 (0.071%) Firmware
10 1 (0.071%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.071%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 24 (1.71%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.28%) Ansible
3 13 (0.93%) Nagios
3 13 (0.93%) ZABBIX
4 12 (0.85%) Netcool
4 12 (0.85%) Tivoli
5 11 (0.78%) OpenView
5 11 (0.78%) Tivoli Monitoring
5 11 (0.78%) vRealize
6 10 (0.71%) vCenter Server
7 7 (0.50%) Grafana
8 6 (0.43%) FortiGate
8 6 (0.43%) VxRail
9 4 (0.28%) CEMLI
9 4 (0.28%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (0.28%) NetBackup
9 4 (0.28%) Prometheus
9 4 (0.28%) SCCM
9 4 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 320 (22.78%) SAP
2 189 (13.45%) Microsoft
3 151 (10.75%) Oracle
4 59 (4.20%) ServiceNow
5 34 (2.42%) VMware
6 29 (2.06%) Splunk
7 20 (1.42%) Salesforce
8 19 (1.35%) Workday
9 18 (1.28%) BMC
10 17 (1.21%) Ariba
11 16 (1.14%) Databricks
11 16 (1.14%) IBM
12 14 (1.00%) JD Edwards
13 13 (0.93%) SolarWinds
14 12 (0.85%) HP
15 11 (0.78%) Google
16 10 (0.71%) CyberArk
17 9 (0.64%) Informatica
17 9 (0.64%) Veeam
18 8 (0.57%) Cisco