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 20 August 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 35 26
Rank change year-on-year +3 -9 +16
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,397 790 1,113
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.07% 5.15% 6.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.53% 5.72% 6.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 800 491 710
10th Percentile £400 £410 £420
25th Percentile £456 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £552
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -0.27% +5.05%
75th Percentile £638 £626 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £742
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 19 20
10th Percentile £51.00 £29.11 £47.75
25th Percentile £56.25 £47.74 £55.00
Median hourly rate £62.25 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -19.68% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £79.88 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £97.00 - £70.21
UK median hourly rate £62.25 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -19.68% +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 25,275 13,804 16,780
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.79% 90.08% 92.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,256 8,477 10,186
10th Percentile £304 £213 £220
25th Percentile £410 £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 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,037 1,240 1,692
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.27 £13.95
25th Percentile £20.44 £16.50 £18.27
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -42.71% +17.07%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.38%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 0 412 £540 -1.82% 222
North of England -6 317 £550 - 197
Midlands +5 257 £500 -9.09% 109
South West +12 203 £553 -5.06% 134
North West -4 199 £575 +0.88% 129
West Midlands +14 182 £500 -9.09% 83
Scotland +33 114 £449 -5.53% 44
Yorkshire -9 97 £525 +4.53% 53
East of England -15 82 £550 - 75
East Midlands -3 65 £525 -4.55% 26
Wales -11 27 £550 +10.00% 9
North East -33 20 £750 +39.66% 16
Northern Ireland -2 2 £544 +4.57% 53
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 20 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.

1 391 (27.99%) Security Cleared
2 311 (22.26%) SAP
3 260 (18.61%) SC Cleared
4 192 (13.74%) Stakeholder Management
5 182 (13.03%) Microsoft
6 156 (11.17%) Migration
7 153 (10.95%) Oracle
8 139 (9.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 132 (9.45%) ERP
10 127 (9.09%) SQL
11 124 (8.88%) Cybersecurity
12 123 (8.80%) Azure
13 122 (8.73%) Continuous Improvement
13 122 (8.73%) Problem-Solving
14 101 (7.23%) Validation
15 100 (7.16%) DV Cleared
16 99 (7.09%) Workshop Facilitation
17 93 (6.66%) SAP S/4HANA
18 91 (6.51%) User Acceptance Testing
19 88 (6.30%) Agile
20 84 (6.01%) Roadmaps
21 80 (5.73%) AWS
22 76 (5.44%) Data Migration
23 73 (5.23%) Analytics
24 70 (5.01%) Risk Management
25 67 (4.80%) Knowledge Transfer
26 63 (4.51%) Business Intelligence
27 61 (4.37%) Requirements Gathering
28 60 (4.29%) CISSP
28 60 (4.29%) Power Platform

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 27 (1.93%) Confluence
2 17 (1.22%) 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 Spark
6 3 (0.21%) Apache Superset
6 3 (0.21%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.21%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.072%) SAS
8 1 (0.072%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.072%) Tomcat
Applications
1 50 (3.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (2.00%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (1.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.57%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.072%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.072%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.072%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 93 (6.66%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (2.29%) SAP PSCD
3 27 (1.93%) Oracle ERP
4 23 (1.65%) SAP MM
5 22 (1.57%) Oracle EBS
6 20 (1.43%) Oracle Payables
6 20 (1.43%) SAP EWM
7 17 (1.22%) Oracle Receivables
7 17 (1.22%) SAP FI
7 17 (1.22%) SAP SD
8 16 (1.15%) SAP Payroll
8 16 (1.15%) SAP QM
9 14 (1.00%) Workday HCM
10 13 (0.93%) SAP PP
11 12 (0.86%) Teamcenter
12 11 (0.79%) NetSuite
12 11 (0.79%) SAP CO
13 10 (0.72%) SAP FI/CO
14 9 (0.64%) SAP HCM
15 8 (0.57%) Oracle General Ledger
Cloud Services
1 123 (8.80%) Azure
2 80 (5.73%) AWS
3 60 (4.29%) Power Platform
4 59 (4.22%) SuccessFactors
5 56 (4.01%) Dynamics 365
6 50 (3.58%) OCI
7 48 (3.44%) GCP
8 33 (2.36%) Microsoft 365
9 28 (2.00%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.65%) Power Automate
11 15 (1.07%) SaaS
12 12 (0.86%) Microsoft Copilot
12 12 (0.86%) Oracle Service Cloud
13 11 (0.79%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (0.79%) GitHub
14 10 (0.72%) PowerApps
14 10 (0.72%) SAP Commerce Cloud
15 9 (0.64%) Cloud Computing
16 8 (0.57%) Azure Monitor
16 8 (0.57%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.22%) Network Security
2 22 (1.57%) Firewall
3 20 (1.43%) SNMP
4 12 (0.86%) BGP
5 11 (0.79%) WAN
6 8 (0.57%) DNS
7 7 (0.50%) LAN
7 7 (0.50%) VPN
7 7 (0.50%) VSAN
8 6 (0.43%) SAN
8 6 (0.43%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.43%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.36%) HTTP
10 4 (0.29%) DHCP
10 4 (0.29%) FTP
10 4 (0.29%) Wireless
11 3 (0.21%) MPLS
11 3 (0.21%) SMS
11 3 (0.21%) TACACS
11 3 (0.21%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (2.65%) Power BI
2 30 (2.15%) Oracle Reports
3 18 (1.29%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 17 (1.22%) Oracle ODI
5 16 (1.15%) SAP BW
6 15 (1.07%) SAP HANA
7 14 (1.00%) SQL Server
8 11 (0.79%) Metadata
8 11 (0.79%) Tableau
9 9 (0.64%) SAP Data Services
10 8 (0.57%) BusinessObjects
11 6 (0.43%) Oracle Database
11 6 (0.43%) Relational Database
12 5 (0.36%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.36%) NonStop SQL
13 4 (0.29%) Power Query
14 3 (0.21%) Amazon Athena
14 3 (0.21%) Delta Lake
14 3 (0.21%) RDBMS
14 3 (0.21%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 49 (3.51%) JIRA
2 11 (0.79%) Git
3 10 (0.72%) Hudson
4 8 (0.57%) Oracle Forms
5 6 (0.43%) 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 (0.072%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.072%) GitLab
8 1 (0.072%) JMeter
8 1 (0.072%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.072%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.072%) Yeoman
General
1 321 (22.98%) Social Skills
2 266 (19.04%) Finance
3 120 (8.59%) Analytical Skills
4 112 (8.02%) Public Sector
5 52 (3.72%) Manufacturing
6 32 (2.29%) Legal
7 30 (2.15%) General Ledger
7 30 (2.15%) Presentation Skills
8 28 (2.00%) Documentation Skills
9 26 (1.86%) Banking
10 25 (1.79%) Telecoms
11 20 (1.43%) Billing
12 18 (1.29%) Retail
13 17 (1.22%) Influencing Skills
14 16 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
15 13 (0.93%) Aerospace
16 12 (0.86%) Marketing
17 10 (0.72%) Financial Institution
18 9 (0.64%) Advertising
19 8 (0.57%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (3.36%) REST
2 42 (3.01%) XML
3 31 (2.22%) Oracle Fusion
4 24 (1.72%) SOAP
5 21 (1.50%) Terraform
6 17 (1.22%) Middleware
7 13 (0.93%) SAP Fiori
7 13 (0.93%) Web Services
8 12 (0.86%) LDAP
9 11 (0.79%) SailPoint
10 9 (0.64%) SAP PI
11 7 (0.50%) IDoc
11 7 (0.50%) JSON
12 6 (0.43%) EDI
12 6 (0.43%) Microsoft Graph
12 6 (0.43%) SAP Basis
13 5 (0.36%) JDBC
13 5 (0.36%) OpenTelemetry
13 5 (0.36%) RESTful
14 4 (0.29%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 42 (3.01%) Onboarding
2 30 (2.15%) Data Protection Act
3 23 (1.65%) CMDB
3 23 (1.65%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.15%) Product Ownership
5 14 (1.00%) Operational Technology
5 14 (1.00%) Replication
6 12 (0.86%) Data Structures
6 12 (0.86%) Management Information System
7 11 (0.79%) Cloud Native
7 11 (0.79%) Data Centre
8 10 (0.72%) PKI
9 9 (0.64%) Analytical Mindset
9 9 (0.64%) FMCG
9 9 (0.64%) Hybrid Cloud
9 9 (0.64%) Private Cloud
9 9 (0.64%) Public Cloud
10 8 (0.57%) Enterprise Software
10 8 (0.57%) Learning Management System
10 8 (0.57%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 58 (4.15%) Windows
2 44 (3.15%) Linux
3 17 (1.22%) Solaris
4 14 (1.00%) AIX
5 10 (0.72%) Unix
5 10 (0.72%) Windows Server
6 8 (0.57%) VMS
7 3 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.072%) Android
9 1 (0.072%) CoreOS
9 1 (0.072%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.072%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.072%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.072%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 192 (13.74%) Stakeholder Management
2 156 (11.17%) Migration
3 139 (9.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 132 (9.45%) ERP
5 124 (8.88%) Cybersecurity
6 122 (8.73%) Continuous Improvement
6 122 (8.73%) Problem-Solving
7 101 (7.23%) Validation
8 99 (7.09%) Workshop Facilitation
9 91 (6.51%) User Acceptance Testing
10 88 (6.30%) Agile
11 84 (6.01%) Roadmaps
12 76 (5.44%) Data Migration
13 73 (5.23%) Analytics
14 70 (5.01%) Risk Management
15 67 (4.80%) Knowledge Transfer
16 63 (4.51%) Business Intelligence
17 61 (4.37%) Requirements Gathering
18 59 (4.22%) Project Delivery
19 58 (4.15%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 127 (9.09%) SQL
2 59 (4.22%) Python
3 31 (2.22%) T-SQL
4 30 (2.15%) PowerShell
5 27 (1.93%) ABAP
6 25 (1.79%) PL/SQL
7 19 (1.36%) JavaScript
8 13 (0.93%) Java
8 13 (0.93%) Search Processing Language
9 12 (0.86%) Bash
10 10 (0.72%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.43%) C#
11 6 (0.43%) R
12 2 (0.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.14%) Groovy
12 2 (0.14%) Korn
12 2 (0.14%) Perl
12 2 (0.14%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.14%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 391 (27.99%) Security Cleared
2 260 (18.61%) SC Cleared
3 100 (7.16%) DV Cleared
4 60 (4.29%) CISSP
5 48 (3.44%) BPSS Clearance
6 46 (3.29%) CISM
7 34 (2.43%) Cisco Certification
8 29 (2.08%) Degree
9 28 (2.00%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 24 (1.72%) CCSP
11 13 (0.93%) ACCA
11 13 (0.93%) CIMA
12 11 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
12 11 (0.79%) PMP
13 10 (0.72%) CEH
13 10 (0.72%) CRISC
14 9 (0.64%) OSCP
15 8 (0.57%) Azure Certification
16 7 (0.50%) CCA
16 7 (0.50%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (3.44%) NIST
2 46 (3.29%) GRC
3 43 (3.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 33 (2.36%) Data Quality
5 23 (1.65%) QA
6 18 (1.29%) GDPR
7 14 (1.00%) SLA
8 13 (0.93%) Actionable Recommendations
8 13 (0.93%) NCSC
8 13 (0.93%) PCI DSS
9 10 (0.72%) PMO
10 9 (0.64%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.50%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.43%) Def Stans
12 6 (0.43%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.43%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.43%) RMADS
13 5 (0.36%) COBIT
14 4 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
14 4 (0.29%) WCAG
System Software
1 43 (3.08%) Active Directory
2 25 (1.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.15%) 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 (0.29%) Docker
9 2 (0.14%) IAG
9 2 (0.14%) NFS
10 1 (0.072%) Firmware
10 1 (0.072%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.072%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 24 (1.72%) Kubernetes
2 19 (1.36%) Ansible
3 13 (0.93%) Nagios
3 13 (0.93%) ZABBIX
4 12 (0.86%) Netcool
4 12 (0.86%) Tivoli
5 11 (0.79%) OpenView
5 11 (0.79%) Tivoli Monitoring
5 11 (0.79%) vRealize
6 10 (0.72%) vCenter Server
7 7 (0.50%) Grafana
8 6 (0.43%) FortiGate
8 6 (0.43%) VxRail
9 5 (0.36%) NetBackup
10 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
10 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
11 3 (0.21%) Oracle Identity Manager
11 3 (0.21%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 311 (22.26%) SAP
2 182 (13.03%) Microsoft
3 153 (10.95%) Oracle
4 60 (4.29%) ServiceNow
5 34 (2.43%) VMware
6 29 (2.08%) Splunk
7 19 (1.36%) Salesforce
8 18 (1.29%) BMC
9 17 (1.22%) Ariba
9 17 (1.22%) Workday
10 16 (1.15%) Databricks
10 16 (1.15%) IBM
11 14 (1.00%) JD Edwards
12 13 (0.93%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.86%) HP
14 11 (0.79%) Google
15 9 (0.64%) CyberArk
15 9 (0.64%) Informatica
15 9 (0.64%) Siemens
15 9 (0.64%) Veeam