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 1 August 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 37 25
Rank change year-on-year +3 -12 +18
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,372 763 1,122
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.04% 5.04% 6.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.46% 5.57% 6.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 772 473 727
10th Percentile £400 £401 £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 £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £750
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 21 18
10th Percentile £52.35 £29.51 £43.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £51.25 £55.24
Median hourly rate £58.75 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -24.19% +25.81% -4.99%
75th Percentile £78.15 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £86.01 - £68.51
UK median hourly rate £58.25 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -16.79% +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 25,115 13,693 17,205
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.17% 90.41% 92.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,230 8,417 10,528
10th Percentile £306 £215 £219
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% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,956 1,195 1,846
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.48 £13.69
25th Percentile £20.97 £16.65 £18.13
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +11.69%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £42.91
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.39% +0.96%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 +2 401 £525 -4.55% 285
North of England -6 297 £550 +2.04% 280
Midlands +1 259 £500 -9.09% 108
South West +18 213 £553 -7.06% 158
West Midlands +14 187 £500 -13.04% 72
North West -13 176 £550 - 202
Scotland +39 103 £425 -10.53% 61
Yorkshire -11 100 £538 +13.16% 63
East of England -18 82 £550 - 47
East Midlands -4 63 £500 -9.09% 36
Wales -3 29 £550 +10.00% 41
North East -36 20 £750 +39.66% 16
Northern Ireland -8 1 £450 -13.46% 58
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 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.

1 343 (25.00%) Security Cleared
2 301 (21.94%) SAP
3 226 (16.47%) SC Cleared
4 159 (11.59%) Microsoft
4 159 (11.59%) Stakeholder Management
5 149 (10.86%) Migration
6 146 (10.64%) ERP
7 144 (10.50%) Oracle
8 136 (9.91%) Azure
9 130 (9.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 124 (9.04%) Problem-Solving
10 124 (9.04%) SQL
11 118 (8.60%) Continuous Improvement
12 115 (8.38%) Cybersecurity
13 99 (7.22%) Validation
14 93 (6.78%) DV Cleared
14 93 (6.78%) SAP S/4HANA
15 90 (6.56%) Workshop Facilitation
16 88 (6.41%) User Acceptance Testing
17 85 (6.20%) Agile
18 83 (6.05%) Roadmaps
19 80 (5.83%) Data Migration
20 73 (5.32%) AWS
21 67 (4.88%) Analytics
22 63 (4.59%) Risk Management
23 60 (4.37%) Business Intelligence
24 59 (4.30%) CISSP
25 58 (4.23%) Power Platform
26 57 (4.15%) Python
27 55 (4.01%) 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 (0.66%) 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%) Tomcat
Applications
1 46 (3.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (1.90%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.09%) 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 (0.073%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 93 (6.78%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (2.41%) SAP PSCD
3 24 (1.75%) Oracle ERP
4 23 (1.68%) Oracle EBS
4 23 (1.68%) SAP MM
5 21 (1.53%) SAP EWM
6 19 (1.38%) Oracle Payables
7 18 (1.31%) SAP Payroll
8 17 (1.24%) SAP FI
8 17 (1.24%) Teamcenter
9 16 (1.17%) Oracle Receivables
10 15 (1.09%) SAP HCM
11 14 (1.02%) SAP QM
11 14 (1.02%) SAP SD
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 (0.66%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 136 (9.91%) Azure
2 73 (5.32%) AWS
3 58 (4.23%) Power Platform
4 53 (3.86%) Dynamics 365
5 48 (3.50%) OCI
6 47 (3.43%) SuccessFactors
7 43 (3.13%) GCP
8 33 (2.41%) Microsoft 365
9 24 (1.75%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.68%) Power Automate
11 17 (1.24%) SaaS
12 13 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
13 12 (0.87%) Oracle Service Cloud
13 12 (0.87%) PowerApps
14 11 (0.80%) Azure DevOps
14 11 (0.80%) GitHub
14 11 (0.80%) SAP Commerce Cloud
15 9 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
16 8 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
17 7 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 30 (2.19%) Network Security
2 24 (1.75%) Firewall
3 20 (1.46%) SNMP
4 12 (0.87%) BGP
5 10 (0.73%) WAN
6 9 (0.66%) 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 36 (2.62%) Power BI
2 29 (2.11%) Oracle Reports
3 22 (1.60%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.24%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 17 (1.24%) Oracle ODI
5 15 (1.09%) SAP BW
6 14 (1.02%) SQL Server
7 11 (0.80%) Tableau
8 10 (0.73%) Metadata
9 9 (0.66%) SAP Data Services
10 7 (0.51%) BusinessObjects
11 6 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
11 6 (0.44%) Oracle Database
12 5 (0.36%) NonStop SQL
12 5 (0.36%) 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 49 (3.57%) JIRA
2 13 (0.95%) Hudson
3 10 (0.73%) 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%) 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%) tSQLt
8 1 (0.073%) Yeoman
General
1 306 (22.30%) Social Skills
2 256 (18.66%) Finance
3 119 (8.67%) Analytical Skills
4 110 (8.02%) Public Sector
5 48 (3.50%) Manufacturing
6 36 (2.62%) Legal
7 33 (2.41%) Banking
8 29 (2.11%) Presentation Skills
9 26 (1.90%) General Ledger
9 26 (1.90%) Telecoms
10 23 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
11 21 (1.53%) Aerospace
12 20 (1.46%) Billing
13 17 (1.24%) Retail
14 15 (1.09%) Influencing Skills
14 15 (1.09%) Marketing
15 14 (1.02%) Organisational Skills
16 9 (0.66%) Advertising
16 9 (0.66%) Financial Institution
17 8 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (3.28%) REST
2 42 (3.06%) XML
3 27 (1.97%) Oracle Fusion
4 23 (1.68%) SOAP
5 15 (1.09%) Middleware
6 12 (0.87%) Web Services
7 11 (0.80%) 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
10 6 (0.44%) SailPoint
11 5 (0.36%) OpenTelemetry
11 5 (0.36%) RESTful
11 5 (0.36%) SAP Basis
12 4 (0.29%) AngularJS
12 4 (0.29%) eBPF
12 4 (0.29%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 41 (2.99%) Onboarding
2 33 (2.41%) Data Protection Act
3 23 (1.68%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.17%) CMDB
4 16 (1.17%) Operational Technology
5 14 (1.02%) Product Ownership
5 14 (1.02%) Replication
6 12 (0.87%) 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%) 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 (0.58%) Security Operations Centre
11 7 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 52 (3.79%) Windows
2 42 (3.06%) 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
1 159 (11.59%) Stakeholder Management
2 149 (10.86%) Migration
3 146 (10.64%) ERP
4 130 (9.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 124 (9.04%) Problem-Solving
6 118 (8.60%) Continuous Improvement
7 115 (8.38%) Cybersecurity
8 99 (7.22%) Validation
9 90 (6.56%) Workshop Facilitation
10 88 (6.41%) User Acceptance Testing
11 85 (6.20%) Agile
12 83 (6.05%) Roadmaps
13 80 (5.83%) Data Migration
14 67 (4.88%) Analytics
15 63 (4.59%) Risk Management
16 60 (4.37%) Business Intelligence
17 55 (4.01%) AI
18 53 (3.86%) Workflow
19 52 (3.79%) Data Protection
19 52 (3.79%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 124 (9.04%) SQL
2 57 (4.15%) Python
3 30 (2.19%) T-SQL
4 29 (2.11%) ABAP
4 29 (2.11%) PowerShell
5 26 (1.90%) PL/SQL
6 19 (1.38%) JavaScript
7 13 (0.95%) Java
7 13 (0.95%) Search Processing Language
8 12 (0.87%) Bash
9 10 (0.73%) Kusto Query Language
10 6 (0.44%) C#
10 6 (0.44%) R
11 2 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.15%) Groovy
11 2 (0.15%) Perl
11 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.15%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.15%) VBScript
12 1 (0.073%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 343 (25.00%) Security Cleared
2 226 (16.47%) SC Cleared
3 93 (6.78%) DV Cleared
4 59 (4.30%) CISSP
5 45 (3.28%) BPSS Clearance
5 45 (3.28%) CISM
6 33 (2.41%) Cisco Certification
7 30 (2.19%) Degree
8 27 (1.97%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 23 (1.68%) CCSP
10 13 (0.95%) ACCA
10 13 (0.95%) CIMA
11 11 (0.80%) PMP
12 10 (0.73%) CEH
13 9 (0.66%) CompTIA Security+
13 9 (0.66%) OSCP
14 8 (0.58%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.58%) CRISC
15 7 (0.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 6 (0.44%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (3.64%) NIST
2 44 (3.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 38 (2.77%) GRC
4 31 (2.26%) Data Quality
5 24 (1.75%) QA
6 18 (1.31%) GDPR
7 13 (0.95%) Actionable Recommendations
7 13 (0.95%) NCSC
7 13 (0.95%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.87%) SLA
9 8 (0.58%) Accessibility
10 7 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.44%) COBIT
11 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
11 6 (0.44%) JSP 440
11 6 (0.44%) NIST 800
11 6 (0.44%) PMO
11 6 (0.44%) RMADS
12 4 (0.29%) WCAG
13 2 (0.15%) GxP
System Software
1 33 (2.41%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.17%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.02%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.95%) vSphere
6 5 (0.36%) 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 (0.073%) Firmware
9 1 (0.073%) IAG
9 1 (0.073%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.073%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 22 (1.60%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.53%) Terraform
3 20 (1.46%) 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
1 301 (21.94%) SAP
2 159 (11.59%) Microsoft
3 144 (10.50%) Oracle
4 52 (3.79%) ServiceNow
5 33 (2.41%) Siemens
6 32 (2.33%) VMware
7 29 (2.11%) Splunk
8 17 (1.24%) BMC
8 17 (1.24%) Salesforce
9 16 (1.17%) IBM
9 16 (1.17%) Workday
10 15 (1.09%) Ariba
10 15 (1.09%) Databricks
11 14 (1.02%) JD Edwards
12 13 (0.95%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.87%) HP
14 10 (0.73%) Google
14 10 (0.73%) IFS
15 9 (0.66%) Informatica
15 9 (0.66%) Veeam