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 £538, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 September 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 30 27
Rank change year-on-year -7 -3 +11
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,373 897 1,104
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.87% 5.81% 6.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.34% 6.46% 6.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 817 579 667
10th Percentile £405 £413 £420
25th Percentile £460 £492 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £567
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% -3.00% +8.00%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £719 £739
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 21 17
10th Percentile £44.25 £29.51 £54.16
25th Percentile £58.97 £51.25 £56.65
Median hourly rate £76.25 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -1.61% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £83.94 £81.25 £69.69
90th Percentile £100.40 £87.25 £79.92
UK median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.94% +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 25,732 13,882 16,556
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.26% 89.89% 92.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,165 8,532 9,580
10th Percentile £303 £213 £220
25th Percentile £413 £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 £663 £679
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,347 1,271 1,426
10th Percentile £14.25 £13.50 £14.41
25th Percentile £20.00 £16.28 £19.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +2.68%
75th Percentile £68.00 £51.85 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.75 £70.16 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -3.37%

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 September 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 September 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 September 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 -8 386 £540 -1.82% 409
North of England -22 325 £575 -2.95% 373
Midlands 0 227 £500 -9.09% 213
North West -15 212 £576 -7.06% 229
South West +11 206 £550 -6.78% 195
West Midlands -3 162 £500 -9.09% 175
Scotland +29 127 £453 -9.40% 134
East of England -12 102 £550 - 168
Yorkshire -20 91 £575 +21.05% 84
East Midlands -9 60 £525 -4.55% 37
Wales -12 24 £550 +22.22% 35
North East -34 21 £750 +37.61% 60
Channel Islands -5 2 £600 - 4
Northern Ireland -6 2 £544 +4.57% 106
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 20 September 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.

1 421 (30.66%) Security Cleared
2 330 (24.03%) SAP
3 283 (20.61%) SC Cleared
4 228 (16.61%) Stakeholder Management
5 193 (14.06%) Microsoft
6 160 (11.65%) Migration
7 154 (11.22%) Oracle
8 139 (10.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 134 (9.76%) Cybersecurity
10 125 (9.10%) Problem-Solving
11 124 (9.03%) Azure
12 122 (8.89%) Continuous Improvement
13 118 (8.59%) ERP
14 112 (8.16%) SAP S/4HANA
15 107 (7.79%) Workshop Facilitation
16 103 (7.50%) DV Cleared
17 102 (7.43%) Validation
18 94 (6.85%) User Acceptance Testing
19 87 (6.34%) Agile
19 87 (6.34%) Roadmaps
20 86 (6.26%) SQL
21 85 (6.19%) AWS
22 79 (5.75%) Analytics
23 74 (5.39%) Knowledge Transfer
24 72 (5.24%) Data Migration
25 67 (4.88%) Requirements Gathering
26 63 (4.59%) BPSS Clearance
26 63 (4.59%) Dynamics 365
26 63 (4.59%) SuccessFactors
27 62 (4.52%) Risk Management

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 23 (1.68%) Confluence
2 16 (1.17%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.66%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.58%) WebLogic
5 6 (0.44%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.22%) ArcGIS
6 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.15%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.073%) Apache
8 1 (0.073%) Apache Superset
8 1 (0.073%) OpenEdge
8 1 (0.073%) SAS
8 1 (0.073%) Tomcat
Applications
1 27 (1.97%) Microsoft Office
2 20 (1.46%) Microsoft Excel
3 17 (1.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.58%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.073%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 112 (8.16%) SAP S/4HANA
2 36 (2.62%) SAP PSCD
3 26 (1.89%) SAP Payroll
4 23 (1.68%) Oracle ERP
5 20 (1.46%) Oracle EBS
5 20 (1.46%) Oracle Payables
5 20 (1.46%) SAP HCM
6 18 (1.31%) SAP FI
6 18 (1.31%) SAP HR
7 17 (1.24%) Oracle Receivables
7 17 (1.24%) SAP EWM
7 17 (1.24%) Workday HCM
8 16 (1.17%) SAP QM
9 14 (1.02%) SAP MM
10 13 (0.95%) SAP PP
10 13 (0.95%) SAP SD
11 12 (0.87%) SAP BRIM
11 12 (0.87%) SAP Hybris
12 11 (0.80%) SAP FI/CO
12 11 (0.80%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 124 (9.03%) Azure
2 85 (6.19%) AWS
3 63 (4.59%) Dynamics 365
3 63 (4.59%) SuccessFactors
4 57 (4.15%) Power Platform
5 55 (4.01%) GCP
6 52 (3.79%) OCI
7 35 (2.55%) Microsoft 365
8 30 (2.18%) Entra ID
9 23 (1.68%) Power Automate
10 15 (1.09%) SaaS
11 13 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
11 13 (0.95%) SAP Commerce Cloud
12 12 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (0.80%) Oracle Service Cloud
14 10 (0.73%) Microsoft Purview
14 10 (0.73%) PowerApps
15 9 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
15 9 (0.66%) GitHub
16 8 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.26%) Network Security
2 21 (1.53%) Firewall
3 16 (1.17%) SNMP
4 12 (0.87%) BGP
4 12 (0.87%) WAN
5 8 (0.58%) DNS
5 8 (0.58%) VPN
6 7 (0.51%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.44%) LAN
7 6 (0.44%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.44%) VSAN
8 5 (0.36%) SAN
9 4 (0.29%) DHCP
9 4 (0.29%) FTP
9 4 (0.29%) Wireless
10 3 (0.22%) Ethernet VPN
10 3 (0.22%) MPLS
10 3 (0.22%) SMS
10 3 (0.22%) TACACS
10 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.11%) Power BI
2 27 (1.97%) Oracle Reports
3 16 (1.17%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 15 (1.09%) SAP BW
5 14 (1.02%) SAP HANA
6 11 (0.80%) Metadata
6 11 (0.80%) Oracle ODI
6 11 (0.80%) SQL Server
7 9 (0.66%) BusinessObjects
8 8 (0.58%) Tableau
9 7 (0.51%) Relational Database
10 6 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.44%) Oracle Database
11 4 (0.29%) NonStop SQL
11 4 (0.29%) Power Query
11 4 (0.29%) SAP Data Services
11 4 (0.29%) Snowflake Schema
12 3 (0.22%) Amazon Athena
12 3 (0.22%) BigQuery
12 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 43 (3.13%) JIRA
2 15 (1.09%) Git
3 8 (0.58%) Hudson
3 8 (0.58%) Oracle Forms
4 6 (0.44%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.29%) GitLab
6 3 (0.22%) Toad
7 2 (0.15%) Gradle
7 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
7 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.15%) Maven
7 2 (0.15%) Postman
7 2 (0.15%) TestRail
7 2 (0.15%) tSQLt
7 2 (0.15%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.073%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.073%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.073%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.073%) Yeoman
General
1 332 (24.18%) Social Skills
2 271 (19.74%) Finance
3 121 (8.81%) Public Sector
4 113 (8.23%) Analytical Skills
5 59 (4.30%) Manufacturing
6 33 (2.40%) Documentation Skills
7 31 (2.26%) Presentation Skills
8 29 (2.11%) General Ledger
8 29 (2.11%) Legal
8 29 (2.11%) Telecoms
9 24 (1.75%) Banking
10 23 (1.68%) Billing
11 20 (1.46%) Influencing Skills
11 20 (1.46%) Retail
12 14 (1.02%) Financial Institution
13 12 (0.87%) Aerospace
13 12 (0.87%) Marketing
13 12 (0.87%) Military
13 12 (0.87%) Organisational Skills
14 8 (0.58%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (2.99%) REST
2 35 (2.55%) Oracle Fusion
3 21 (1.53%) Terraform
4 20 (1.46%) SailPoint
4 20 (1.46%) SOAP
5 19 (1.38%) Middleware
6 18 (1.31%) LDAP
7 17 (1.24%) SAP Fiori
8 16 (1.17%) Web Services
9 14 (1.02%) XML
10 9 (0.66%) SAP PI
11 6 (0.44%) EDI
11 6 (0.44%) IDoc
11 6 (0.44%) JSON
11 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
11 6 (0.44%) SAPUI5
12 5 (0.36%) JDBC
12 5 (0.36%) OAuth
12 5 (0.36%) SAP Basis
12 5 (0.36%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 48 (3.50%) Onboarding
2 27 (1.97%) Operational Technology
3 25 (1.82%) Data Protection Act
3 25 (1.82%) Security Posture
4 23 (1.68%) CMDB
5 15 (1.09%) Product Ownership
6 14 (1.02%) PKI
7 13 (0.95%) Enterprise Software
8 11 (0.80%) Cloud Native
8 11 (0.80%) Data Centre
8 11 (0.80%) Data Structures
8 11 (0.80%) Learning Management System
8 11 (0.80%) Management Information System
9 9 (0.66%) Replication
10 8 (0.58%) AI Agents
10 8 (0.58%) FMCG
11 7 (0.51%) Greenfield Project
11 7 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
11 7 (0.51%) Private Cloud
11 7 (0.51%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 54 (3.93%) Windows
2 35 (2.55%) Linux
3 17 (1.24%) Solaris
4 11 (0.80%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.73%) AIX
6 9 (0.66%) Unix
7 5 (0.36%) VMS
8 4 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.073%) Android
10 1 (0.073%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.073%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 228 (16.61%) Stakeholder Management
2 160 (11.65%) Migration
3 139 (10.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 134 (9.76%) Cybersecurity
5 125 (9.10%) Problem-Solving
6 122 (8.89%) Continuous Improvement
7 118 (8.59%) ERP
8 107 (7.79%) Workshop Facilitation
9 102 (7.43%) Validation
10 94 (6.85%) User Acceptance Testing
11 87 (6.34%) Agile
11 87 (6.34%) Roadmaps
12 79 (5.75%) Analytics
13 74 (5.39%) Knowledge Transfer
14 72 (5.24%) Data Migration
15 67 (4.88%) Requirements Gathering
16 62 (4.52%) Risk Management
17 61 (4.44%) Translating Business Requirements
18 58 (4.22%) CI/CD
19 56 (4.08%) AI
Programming Languages
1 86 (6.26%) SQL
2 50 (3.64%) Python
3 34 (2.48%) ABAP
4 25 (1.82%) PowerShell
5 20 (1.46%) PL/SQL
6 18 (1.31%) JavaScript
7 14 (1.02%) Java
8 12 (0.87%) Bash
9 11 (0.80%) Search Processing Language
10 10 (0.73%) Kusto Query Language
11 4 (0.29%) R
11 4 (0.29%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.22%) C#
12 3 (0.22%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.15%) Groovy
13 2 (0.15%) Korn
13 2 (0.15%) Magik
13 2 (0.15%) Perl
13 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
14 1 (0.073%) XPath
Qualifications
1 421 (30.66%) Security Cleared
2 283 (20.61%) SC Cleared
3 103 (7.50%) DV Cleared
4 63 (4.59%) BPSS Clearance
5 53 (3.86%) CISSP
6 44 (3.20%) CISM
7 35 (2.55%) Cisco Certification
8 30 (2.18%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 26 (1.89%) CCSP
10 24 (1.75%) Degree
11 13 (0.95%) ACCA
11 13 (0.95%) CIMA
12 12 (0.87%) CompTIA Security+
13 11 (0.80%) PMP
14 10 (0.73%) CRISC
15 8 (0.58%) CCSK
16 7 (0.51%) Azure Certification
16 7 (0.51%) CCA
16 7 (0.51%) CEH
16 7 (0.51%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (3.42%) NIST
2 44 (3.20%) GRC
3 34 (2.48%) Data Quality
3 34 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 21 (1.53%) QA
5 18 (1.31%) NCSC
6 16 (1.17%) SLA
7 15 (1.09%) GDPR
8 13 (0.95%) Actionable Recommendations
9 12 (0.87%) PMO
10 9 (0.66%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.51%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
12 6 (0.44%) PCI DSS
13 5 (0.36%) COBIT
14 4 (0.29%) WCAG
15 3 (0.22%) JSP 440
15 3 (0.22%) RMADS
15 3 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 49 (3.57%) Active Directory
2 22 (1.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (1.02%) VMware NSX
4 13 (0.95%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (0.73%) vSphere
6 9 (0.66%) Hyper-V
7 8 (0.58%) Docker
8 4 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.22%) Firmware
9 3 (0.22%) IAG
10 1 (0.073%) NFS
10 1 (0.073%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.073%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 30 (2.18%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.31%) Ansible
3 10 (0.73%) vCenter Server
3 10 (0.73%) vRealize
4 9 (0.66%) Nagios
4 9 (0.66%) ZABBIX
5 8 (0.58%) Netcool
5 8 (0.58%) Tivoli
6 7 (0.51%) Grafana
6 7 (0.51%) OpenView
6 7 (0.51%) Tivoli Monitoring
7 6 (0.44%) FortiGate
7 6 (0.44%) VxRail
8 5 (0.36%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (0.36%) SCCM
9 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
9 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
10 3 (0.22%) Failover Clustering
10 3 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 330 (24.03%) SAP
2 193 (14.06%) Microsoft
3 154 (11.22%) Oracle
4 59 (4.30%) ServiceNow
5 30 (2.18%) VMware
6 25 (1.82%) Workday
7 23 (1.68%) Splunk
8 19 (1.38%) Salesforce
9 16 (1.17%) Ariba
10 14 (1.02%) BMC
10 14 (1.02%) Databricks
10 14 (1.02%) JD Edwards
11 13 (0.95%) CyberArk
12 11 (0.80%) Google
12 11 (0.80%) IBM
13 9 (0.66%) SolarWinds
14 8 (0.58%) Cisco
14 8 (0.58%) HP
14 8 (0.58%) Veeam
15 7 (0.51%) Informatica