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 25 July 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 37 27
Rank change year-on-year +2 -10 +15
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,342 757 1,152
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.96% 5.05% 5.93%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.38% 5.58% 6.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 742 470 743
10th Percentile £403 £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 £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £745
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 19 21
10th Percentile £52.50 £29.11 £27.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £47.74 £55.00
Median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -25.81% +25.81% -5.32%
75th Percentile £63.38 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £86.00 £82.20 £69.69
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -5.41%

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 24,951 13,562 17,904
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.13% 90.56% 92.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,214 8,367 10,947
10th Percentile £305 £217 £213
25th Percentile £408 £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% -2.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,882 1,165 1,985
10th Percentile £15.06 £13.50 £13.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £16.50 £17.25
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +8.04%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.85 £25.15 £41.50
% change year-on-year +70.39% -39.40% -5.26%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 -2 387 £530 -3.64% 234
North of England -19 280 £525 -2.78% 172
Midlands -2 262 £500 -9.09% 74
South West +23 213 £553 -3.83% 112
West Midlands +17 188 £500 -11.11% 53
North West -18 160 £525 -6.04% 121
Scotland +34 101 £425 -12.82% 29
Yorkshire -15 101 £544 +11.54% 41
East of England -13 83 £550 - 39
East Midlands -5 65 £500 -9.09% 21
Wales -8 29 £550 +23.94% 17
North East -42 20 £750 +40.45% 10
Northern Ireland -4 2 £525 +0.96% 20
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 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.

1 314 (23.40%) Security Cleared
2 288 (21.46%) SAP
3 209 (15.57%) SC Cleared
4 157 (11.70%) Microsoft
5 145 (10.80%) ERP
6 142 (10.58%) Migration
6 142 (10.58%) Stakeholder Management
7 141 (10.51%) Azure
8 136 (10.13%) Oracle
9 129 (9.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 124 (9.24%) Problem-Solving
11 119 (8.87%) SQL
12 114 (8.49%) Continuous Improvement
13 107 (7.97%) Cybersecurity
14 97 (7.23%) SAP S/4HANA
14 97 (7.23%) Validation
15 88 (6.56%) Workshop Facilitation
16 85 (6.33%) DV Cleared
16 85 (6.33%) User Acceptance Testing
17 80 (5.96%) Agile
18 77 (5.74%) Roadmaps
19 76 (5.66%) Data Migration
20 73 (5.44%) AWS
21 59 (4.40%) Analytics
22 58 (4.32%) CISSP
22 58 (4.32%) Python
23 57 (4.25%) Power Platform
23 57 (4.25%) Risk Management
24 56 (4.17%) Data Protection
25 54 (4.02%) Business Intelligence

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 (2.09%) Confluence
2 19 (1.42%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.67%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.60%) WebLogic
5 7 (0.52%) 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 (0.075%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.075%) SAS
7 1 (0.075%) Tomcat
Applications
1 46 (3.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 27 (2.01%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.75%) 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
6 2 (0.15%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.075%) CATIA
7 1 (0.075%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 97 (7.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 35 (2.61%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.71%) Oracle EBS
3 23 (1.71%) SAP MM
4 21 (1.56%) Oracle ERP
4 21 (1.56%) SAP EWM
5 20 (1.49%) Teamcenter
6 18 (1.34%) Oracle Payables
6 18 (1.34%) SAP FI
6 18 (1.34%) SAP Payroll
7 15 (1.12%) Oracle Receivables
7 15 (1.12%) SAP HCM
7 15 (1.12%) SAP SD
8 14 (1.04%) SAP QM
9 12 (0.89%) Workday HCM
10 11 (0.82%) NetSuite
10 11 (0.82%) SAP CO
10 11 (0.82%) SAP PP
11 10 (0.75%) SAP FI/CO
12 9 (0.67%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 141 (10.51%) Azure
2 73 (5.44%) AWS
3 57 (4.25%) Power Platform
4 53 (3.95%) Dynamics 365
5 44 (3.28%) OCI
6 42 (3.13%) GCP
7 32 (2.38%) SuccessFactors
8 31 (2.31%) Microsoft 365
9 27 (2.01%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.71%) Power Automate
11 17 (1.27%) SaaS
12 12 (0.89%) Microsoft Copilot
12 12 (0.89%) Oracle Service Cloud
12 12 (0.89%) PowerApps
13 11 (0.82%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (0.82%) GitHub
13 11 (0.82%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.67%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.60%) Azure Monitor
16 7 (0.52%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 29 (2.16%) Network Security
2 24 (1.79%) Firewall
3 20 (1.49%) SNMP
4 12 (0.89%) BGP
5 10 (0.75%) WAN
6 8 (0.60%) VPN
7 7 (0.52%) FTP
7 7 (0.52%) LAN
8 6 (0.45%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.45%) VSAN
9 5 (0.37%) HTTP
9 5 (0.37%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (0.30%) DNS
10 4 (0.30%) SAN
10 4 (0.30%) 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 (2.61%) Power BI
2 28 (2.09%) Oracle Reports
3 22 (1.64%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.27%) Oracle ODI
5 15 (1.12%) SAP BW
6 12 (0.89%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 12 (0.89%) SQL Server
7 11 (0.82%) Tableau
8 10 (0.75%) Metadata
9 9 (0.67%) SAP Data Services
10 7 (0.52%) BusinessObjects
11 6 (0.45%) Oracle Database
12 5 (0.37%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.37%) NonStop SQL
13 4 (0.30%) Power Query
13 4 (0.30%) Relational Database
14 3 (0.22%) Amazon Athena
14 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
14 3 (0.22%) Hadoop
14 3 (0.22%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 49 (3.65%) JIRA
2 13 (0.97%) Hudson
3 9 (0.67%) Git
4 7 (0.52%) Oracle Forms
5 6 (0.45%) 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 (0.075%) JMeter
8 1 (0.075%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.075%) Yeoman
General
1 291 (21.68%) Social Skills
2 245 (18.26%) Finance
3 115 (8.57%) Analytical Skills
4 107 (7.97%) Public Sector
5 48 (3.58%) Manufacturing
6 37 (2.76%) Legal
7 32 (2.38%) Banking
8 26 (1.94%) Telecoms
9 24 (1.79%) General Ledger
9 24 (1.79%) Presentation Skills
10 22 (1.64%) Billing
10 22 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
11 21 (1.56%) Aerospace
12 16 (1.19%) Retail
13 15 (1.12%) Marketing
14 14 (1.04%) Organisational Skills
15 13 (0.97%) Influencing Skills
16 9 (0.67%) Advertising
16 9 (0.67%) Financial Institution
17 8 (0.60%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (3.20%) XML
2 40 (2.98%) REST
3 23 (1.71%) Oracle Fusion
4 18 (1.34%) SOAP
5 15 (1.12%) Middleware
6 12 (0.89%) Web Services
7 11 (0.82%) SAP Fiori
8 9 (0.67%) SAP PI
9 7 (0.52%) IDoc
10 6 (0.45%) JDBC
10 6 (0.45%) JSON
10 6 (0.45%) LDAP
10 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Graph
10 6 (0.45%) SailPoint
11 5 (0.37%) OpenTelemetry
11 5 (0.37%) RESTful
11 5 (0.37%) SAP Basis
12 4 (0.30%) AngularJS
12 4 (0.30%) eBPF
12 4 (0.30%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 36 (2.68%) Data Protection Act
2 35 (2.61%) Onboarding
3 24 (1.79%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.19%) Operational Technology
5 13 (0.97%) Replication
6 12 (0.89%) AI Agents
6 12 (0.89%) CMDB
6 12 (0.89%) Product Ownership
7 11 (0.82%) Data Centre
8 10 (0.75%) Analytical Mindset
8 10 (0.75%) Cloud Native
9 9 (0.67%) Data Structures
9 9 (0.67%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (0.67%) FMCG
9 9 (0.67%) Management Information System
9 9 (0.67%) Private Cloud
9 9 (0.67%) Public Cloud
10 8 (0.60%) Legacy Systems
11 7 (0.52%) NHS
11 7 (0.52%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 53 (3.95%) Windows
2 42 (3.13%) Linux
3 17 (1.27%) Solaris
4 14 (1.04%) AIX
5 11 (0.82%) Unix
6 9 (0.67%) VMS
7 3 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.15%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.075%) Android
9 1 (0.075%) CoreOS
9 1 (0.075%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.075%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.075%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 145 (10.80%) ERP
2 142 (10.58%) Migration
2 142 (10.58%) Stakeholder Management
3 129 (9.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 124 (9.24%) Problem-Solving
5 114 (8.49%) Continuous Improvement
6 107 (7.97%) Cybersecurity
7 97 (7.23%) Validation
8 88 (6.56%) Workshop Facilitation
9 85 (6.33%) User Acceptance Testing
10 80 (5.96%) Agile
11 77 (5.74%) Roadmaps
12 76 (5.66%) Data Migration
13 59 (4.40%) Analytics
14 57 (4.25%) Risk Management
15 56 (4.17%) Data Protection
16 54 (4.02%) Business Intelligence
17 52 (3.87%) AI
18 51 (3.80%) PLM
18 51 (3.80%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 119 (8.87%) SQL
2 58 (4.32%) Python
3 29 (2.16%) ABAP
3 29 (2.16%) T-SQL
4 28 (2.09%) PowerShell
5 26 (1.94%) PL/SQL
6 19 (1.42%) JavaScript
7 13 (0.97%) Java
7 13 (0.97%) Search Processing Language
8 12 (0.89%) Bash
9 10 (0.75%) Kusto Query Language
10 6 (0.45%) R
11 5 (0.37%) C#
12 3 (0.22%) TypeScript
13 2 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.15%) Perl
13 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.15%) VBScript
14 1 (0.075%) JCL
14 1 (0.075%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 314 (23.40%) Security Cleared
2 209 (15.57%) SC Cleared
3 85 (6.33%) DV Cleared
4 58 (4.32%) CISSP
5 45 (3.35%) CISM
6 39 (2.91%) BPSS Clearance
7 32 (2.38%) Cisco Certification
8 31 (2.31%) Degree
9 25 (1.86%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 22 (1.64%) CCSP
11 11 (0.82%) ACCA
11 11 (0.82%) CIMA
11 11 (0.82%) PMP
12 10 (0.75%) CEH
13 9 (0.67%) OSCP
14 8 (0.60%) Azure Certification
14 8 (0.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 7 (0.52%) CompTIA Security+
16 6 (0.45%) Computer Science Degree
16 6 (0.45%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (3.80%) NIST
2 44 (3.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 36 (2.68%) GRC
4 29 (2.16%) Data Quality
5 22 (1.64%) QA
6 19 (1.42%) GDPR
7 14 (1.04%) NCSC
8 13 (0.97%) PCI DSS
9 12 (0.89%) Actionable Recommendations
10 11 (0.82%) SLA
11 8 (0.60%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.45%) COBIT
13 6 (0.45%) JSP 440
13 6 (0.45%) PMO
13 6 (0.45%) RMADS
14 5 (0.37%) Def Stans
14 5 (0.37%) NIST 800
15 4 (0.30%) WCAG
16 2 (0.15%) GxP
System Software
1 32 (2.38%) Active Directory
2 22 (1.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.19%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.04%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.97%) vSphere
6 4 (0.30%) 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 (0.075%) Firmware
9 1 (0.075%) IAG
9 1 (0.075%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.075%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 22 (1.64%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.56%) Terraform
3 19 (1.42%) Ansible
4 13 (0.97%) Nagios
4 13 (0.97%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.89%) Netcool
5 12 (0.89%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.82%) OpenView
6 11 (0.82%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 11 (0.82%) vRealize
7 10 (0.75%) vCenter Server
8 7 (0.52%) Grafana
9 6 (0.45%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.45%) NetBackup
10 5 (0.37%) VxRail
11 4 (0.30%) CEMLI
11 4 (0.30%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Manager
12 3 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 288 (21.46%) SAP
2 157 (11.70%) Microsoft
3 136 (10.13%) Oracle
4 45 (3.35%) ServiceNow
5 42 (3.13%) Siemens
6 31 (2.31%) VMware
7 29 (2.16%) Splunk
8 16 (1.19%) BMC
8 16 (1.19%) IBM
9 15 (1.12%) Ariba
9 15 (1.12%) Salesforce
9 15 (1.12%) Workday
10 14 (1.04%) JD Edwards
11 13 (0.97%) Databricks
11 13 (0.97%) SolarWinds
12 12 (0.89%) HP
13 10 (0.75%) Google
13 10 (0.75%) IFS
14 9 (0.67%) Informatica
14 9 (0.67%) Veeam