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 12 August 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 33 34 27
Rank change year-on-year +1 -7 +13
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,373 784 1,103
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.02% 5.13% 6.03%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.46% 5.69% 6.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 781 486 707
10th Percentile £400 £408 £425
25th Percentile £455 £475 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £568
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -3.08% +8.10%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £746
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 54 20 19
10th Percentile £51.00 £29.31 £45.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £49.50 £55.00
Median hourly rate £61.13 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -21.13% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £78.70 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £88.83 £81.73 £68.34
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -22.58% +25.81% -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 25,147 13,783 16,847
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.98% 90.27% 92.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,197 8,465 10,270
10th Percentile £305 £217 £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 £682
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,022 1,220 1,735
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.27 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.50 £16.34 £19.05
Median hourly rate £42.68 £25.08 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.20% -44.28% +27.66%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% +2.87%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 +1 415 £525 -4.55% 306
North of England -9 298 £550 +0.92% 369
Midlands +5 252 £500 -9.09% 166
South West +21 207 £556 -6.55% 224
West Midlands +19 180 £500 -9.09% 128
North West -11 177 £563 +2.27% 261
Scotland +40 107 £425 -12.82% 115
Yorkshire -10 100 £525 +10.53% 80
East of England -21 79 £550 - 86
East Midlands -2 63 £513 -6.82% 36
Wales -5 28 £550 +10.00% 19
North East -37 20 £750 +39.66% 30
Northern Ireland -1 1 £450 -13.46% 110
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 12 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.

1 366 (26.66%) Security Cleared
2 301 (21.92%) SAP
3 240 (17.48%) SC Cleared
4 171 (12.45%) Stakeholder Management
5 170 (12.38%) Microsoft
6 153 (11.14%) Migration
7 145 (10.56%) Oracle
8 135 (9.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 134 (9.76%) ERP
10 128 (9.32%) Azure
11 125 (9.10%) SQL
12 119 (8.67%) Cybersecurity
13 118 (8.59%) Continuous Improvement
14 117 (8.52%) Problem-Solving
15 99 (7.21%) Validation
16 98 (7.14%) DV Cleared
17 93 (6.77%) Workshop Facilitation
18 92 (6.70%) SAP S/4HANA
19 87 (6.34%) Agile
20 86 (6.26%) Roadmaps
20 86 (6.26%) User Acceptance Testing
21 78 (5.68%) AWS
22 76 (5.54%) Data Migration
23 72 (5.24%) Analytics
24 65 (4.73%) Risk Management
25 60 (4.37%) Business Intelligence
25 60 (4.37%) CISSP
26 59 (4.30%) Python
27 58 (4.22%) Power Platform
28 57 (4.15%) Knowledge Transfer

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 17 (1.24%) 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%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.073%) NetWeaver
8 1 (0.073%) SAS
8 1 (0.073%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.073%) Tomcat
Applications
1 49 (3.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 27 (1.97%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.51%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.15%) Lectora
7 1 (0.073%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.073%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 92 (6.70%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (2.33%) SAP PSCD
3 25 (1.82%) Oracle ERP
4 22 (1.60%) Oracle EBS
5 20 (1.46%) SAP EWM
5 20 (1.46%) SAP MM
6 18 (1.31%) Oracle Payables
6 18 (1.31%) SAP FI
7 16 (1.17%) SAP Payroll
8 15 (1.09%) Oracle Receivables
8 15 (1.09%) SAP QM
9 14 (1.02%) SAP SD
9 14 (1.02%) Teamcenter
10 12 (0.87%) SAP CO
11 11 (0.80%) NetSuite
11 11 (0.80%) SAP FI/CO
11 11 (0.80%) SAP PP
11 11 (0.80%) Workday HCM
12 10 (0.73%) SAP HCM
13 8 (0.58%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 128 (9.32%) Azure
2 78 (5.68%) AWS
3 58 (4.22%) Power Platform
4 56 (4.08%) Dynamics 365
5 54 (3.93%) SuccessFactors
6 49 (3.57%) OCI
7 47 (3.42%) GCP
8 33 (2.40%) Microsoft 365
9 25 (1.82%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.68%) Power Automate
11 16 (1.17%) SaaS
12 12 (0.87%) GitHub
12 12 (0.87%) Oracle Service Cloud
13 11 (0.80%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (0.80%) Microsoft Copilot
14 10 (0.73%) PowerApps
14 10 (0.73%) SAP Commerce Cloud
15 9 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
16 8 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
16 8 (0.58%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.26%) Network Security
2 22 (1.60%) Firewall
3 20 (1.46%) SNMP
4 12 (0.87%) BGP
5 11 (0.80%) WAN
6 8 (0.58%) VPN
7 7 (0.51%) LAN
7 7 (0.51%) VSAN
8 6 (0.44%) DNS
8 6 (0.44%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.44%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.36%) HTTP
9 5 (0.36%) SAN
10 4 (0.29%) FTP
10 4 (0.29%) Wireless
11 3 (0.22%) DHCP
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 30 (2.18%) Oracle Reports
3 18 (1.31%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.24%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 17 (1.24%) Oracle ODI
5 16 (1.17%) SAP BW
6 14 (1.02%) SQL Server
7 11 (0.80%) Metadata
7 11 (0.80%) Tableau
8 9 (0.66%) SAP Data Services
9 8 (0.58%) BusinessObjects
10 6 (0.44%) Oracle Database
10 6 (0.44%) Relational Database
11 5 (0.36%) Data Warehouse
11 5 (0.36%) NonStop SQL
12 4 (0.29%) Power Query
13 3 (0.22%) Amazon Athena
13 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
13 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
13 3 (0.22%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 48 (3.50%) JIRA
2 12 (0.87%) Hudson
3 11 (0.80%) Git
4 8 (0.58%) Oracle Forms
5 7 (0.51%) Jenkins
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%) Postman
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%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.073%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.073%) Yeoman
General
1 309 (22.51%) Social Skills
2 266 (19.37%) Finance
3 113 (8.23%) Analytical Skills
4 108 (7.87%) Public Sector
5 50 (3.64%) Manufacturing
6 34 (2.48%) Legal
7 31 (2.26%) Presentation Skills
8 30 (2.18%) Banking
9 27 (1.97%) General Ledger
10 26 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
10 26 (1.89%) Telecoms
11 19 (1.38%) Billing
12 17 (1.24%) Aerospace
12 17 (1.24%) Retail
13 16 (1.17%) Influencing Skills
14 15 (1.09%) Organisational Skills
15 14 (1.02%) Marketing
16 10 (0.73%) Financial Institution
17 9 (0.66%) Advertising
18 8 (0.58%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (3.35%) REST
2 41 (2.99%) XML
3 25 (1.82%) Oracle Fusion
4 24 (1.75%) SOAP
5 15 (1.09%) Middleware
6 12 (0.87%) SAP Fiori
7 11 (0.80%) Web Services
8 10 (0.73%) LDAP
9 9 (0.66%) SAP PI
10 7 (0.51%) IDoc
10 7 (0.51%) JSON
10 7 (0.51%) SailPoint
11 6 (0.44%) JDBC
11 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
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%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 41 (2.99%) Onboarding
2 32 (2.33%) Data Protection Act
3 23 (1.68%) Security Posture
4 21 (1.53%) CMDB
5 17 (1.24%) Operational Technology
6 14 (1.02%) Product Ownership
6 14 (1.02%) Replication
7 11 (0.80%) Data Centre
7 11 (0.80%) Data Structures
7 11 (0.80%) Management Information System
8 10 (0.73%) AI Agents
8 10 (0.73%) Cloud Native
9 9 (0.66%) Analytical Mindset
9 9 (0.66%) FMCG
9 9 (0.66%) Private Cloud
9 9 (0.66%) Public Cloud
10 8 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
10 8 (0.58%) Hybrid Cloud
10 8 (0.58%) Legacy Systems
10 8 (0.58%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 55 (4.01%) Windows
2 43 (3.13%) Linux
3 17 (1.24%) Solaris
4 14 (1.02%) AIX
5 10 (0.73%) Unix
6 8 (0.58%) VMS
7 7 (0.51%) Windows Server
8 3 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.073%) Android
9 1 (0.073%) CoreOS
9 1 (0.073%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.073%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.073%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.073%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 171 (12.45%) Stakeholder Management
2 153 (11.14%) Migration
3 135 (9.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 134 (9.76%) ERP
5 119 (8.67%) Cybersecurity
6 118 (8.59%) Continuous Improvement
7 117 (8.52%) Problem-Solving
8 99 (7.21%) Validation
9 93 (6.77%) Workshop Facilitation
10 87 (6.34%) Agile
11 86 (6.26%) Roadmaps
11 86 (6.26%) User Acceptance Testing
12 76 (5.54%) Data Migration
13 72 (5.24%) Analytics
14 65 (4.73%) Risk Management
15 60 (4.37%) Business Intelligence
16 57 (4.15%) Knowledge Transfer
17 56 (4.08%) Workflow
18 55 (4.01%) AI
18 55 (4.01%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 125 (9.10%) SQL
2 59 (4.30%) Python
3 31 (2.26%) T-SQL
4 29 (2.11%) PowerShell
5 27 (1.97%) ABAP
6 25 (1.82%) PL/SQL
7 19 (1.38%) JavaScript
8 13 (0.95%) Bash
8 13 (0.95%) Java
8 13 (0.95%) Search Processing Language
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%) Korn
11 2 (0.15%) Perl
11 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.15%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.15%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 366 (26.66%) Security Cleared
2 240 (17.48%) SC Cleared
3 98 (7.14%) DV Cleared
4 60 (4.37%) CISSP
5 47 (3.42%) BPSS Clearance
6 46 (3.35%) CISM
7 34 (2.48%) Cisco Certification
8 31 (2.26%) Degree
9 28 (2.04%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 24 (1.75%) CCSP
11 13 (0.95%) ACCA
11 13 (0.95%) CIMA
12 11 (0.80%) PMP
13 10 (0.73%) CEH
13 10 (0.73%) CompTIA Security+
14 9 (0.66%) CRISC
14 9 (0.66%) OSCP
15 8 (0.58%) Azure Certification
16 7 (0.51%) CCA
16 7 (0.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (3.50%) NIST
2 42 (3.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 40 (2.91%) 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%) PCI DSS
8 11 (0.80%) NCSC
8 11 (0.80%) SLA
9 8 (0.58%) Accessibility
10 7 (0.51%) PMO
10 7 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
11 6 (0.44%) JSP 440
11 6 (0.44%) NIST 800
11 6 (0.44%) RMADS
12 5 (0.36%) COBIT
13 4 (0.29%) WCAG
14 2 (0.15%) GxP
System Software
1 37 (2.69%) Active Directory
2 25 (1.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.17%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.02%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.95%) vSphere
6 6 (0.44%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.29%) Docker
8 4 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.15%) NFS
10 1 (0.073%) Firmware
10 1 (0.073%) IAG
10 1 (0.073%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.073%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 24 (1.75%) 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
9 6 (0.44%) VxRail
10 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
10 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Management
11 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Manager
Vendors
1 301 (21.92%) SAP
2 170 (12.38%) Microsoft
3 145 (10.56%) Oracle
4 56 (4.08%) ServiceNow
5 34 (2.48%) VMware
6 29 (2.11%) Splunk
7 19 (1.38%) Salesforce
7 19 (1.38%) Siemens
8 18 (1.31%) BMC
9 16 (1.17%) Databricks
9 16 (1.17%) IBM
10 15 (1.09%) Ariba
11 14 (1.02%) JD Edwards
11 14 (1.02%) Workday
12 13 (0.95%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.87%) HP
14 11 (0.80%) Google
15 9 (0.66%) IFS
15 9 (0.66%) Informatica
15 9 (0.66%) Veeam