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 £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 February 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 33 34
Rank change year-on-year -1 +1 +27
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,029 764 1,042
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.35% 5.57% 4.98%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.90% 6.02% 5.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 627 473 697
10th Percentile £403 £413 £375
25th Percentile £468 £488 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £537
Median % change year-on-year - +2.42% -2.36%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £707 £719
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 11 29
10th Percentile - £71.19 £39.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £73.19 £52.90
Median hourly rate £57.50 £82.50 £61.79
Median % change year-on-year -30.30% +33.52% -4.46%
75th Percentile £65.00 £86.00 £78.00
90th Percentile £82.20 £86.25 £87.20
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £82.50 £63.29
% change year-on-year -27.27% +30.35% -4.11%

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 17,439 12,689 19,551
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.74% 92.48% 93.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,638 7,532 12,371
10th Percentile £213 £210 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £370
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £479 £495
Median % change year-on-year -0.73% -3.33% -1.00%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £598
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,806 666 1,830
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.22 £13.00
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £16.25
Median hourly rate £27.50 £31.64 £37.34
Median % change year-on-year -13.08% -15.27% +22.95%
75th Percentile £61.18 £63.75 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £29.60 £32.66 £36.05
% change year-on-year -9.36% -9.40% +2.99%

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 +1 271 £550 - 332
North of England -6 266 £600 +9.09% 186
Midlands -18 186 £525 - 88
North West -3 158 £625 +16.17% 107
West Midlands -6 141 £538 +2.38% 65
South West +8 119 £588 +11.90% 163
Yorkshire +5 98 £550 -12.00% 68
East of England +5 94 £550 - 46
Scotland +13 62 £510 -7.27% 26
East Midlands -20 44 £505 -2.88% 22
Wales +10 27 £405 -22.86% 17
Northern Ireland +6 13 £405 -22.86% 19
North East -24 10 £525 -9.48% 11
Channel Islands - 2 £600 -
South Coast - 1 £550 -
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 February 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.

1 322 (31.29%) Security Cleared
2 263 (25.56%) SC Cleared
3 257 (24.98%) SAP
4 156 (15.16%) Migration
4 156 (15.16%) SAP S/4HANA
5 126 (12.24%) Oracle
6 121 (11.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 109 (10.59%) Problem-Solving
8 103 (10.01%) ERP
9 101 (9.82%) Stakeholder Management
9 101 (9.82%) Workshop Facilitation
10 100 (9.72%) Microsoft
11 88 (8.55%) Azure
12 68 (6.61%) Roadmaps
13 67 (6.51%) User Acceptance Testing
14 61 (5.93%) Knowledge Transfer
15 60 (5.83%) Analytics
16 59 (5.73%) Data Migration
17 57 (5.54%) Validation
18 52 (5.05%) Business Intelligence
18 52 (5.05%) CyberArk
18 52 (5.05%) Cybersecurity
19 49 (4.76%) Cisco
20 48 (4.66%) Change Management
21 47 (4.57%) Logistics
22 43 (4.18%) Agile
22 43 (4.18%) BPSS Clearance
22 43 (4.18%) DV Cleared
22 43 (4.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
23 42 (4.08%) Collaborative Working

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 29 (2.82%) SharePoint
2 15 (1.46%) Confluence
3 14 (1.36%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.58%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.29%) MTS
6 2 (0.19%) CMS
6 2 (0.19%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.097%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.097%) Camunda
7 1 (0.097%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.097%) SAS
7 1 (0.097%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.097%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 19 (1.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (0.78%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.49%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.39%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.39%) PTC Creo
5 4 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.29%) Navisworks
6 3 (0.29%) Revit
7 2 (0.19%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.097%) CATIA
8 1 (0.097%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.097%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.097%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 156 (15.16%) SAP S/4HANA
2 36 (3.50%) Oracle EBS
3 29 (2.82%) Oracle Payables
3 29 (2.82%) Oracle Receivables
4 28 (2.72%) SAP FI
5 25 (2.43%) Oracle EBS R12
5 25 (2.43%) SAP PSCD
6 24 (2.33%) SAP MM
7 22 (2.14%) Oracle Cash Management
8 21 (2.04%) Oracle General Ledger
9 20 (1.94%) SAP EWM
10 19 (1.85%) Oracle Assets
10 19 (1.85%) SAP HCM
11 18 (1.75%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
11 18 (1.75%) SAP Hybris
11 18 (1.75%) SAP WM
12 17 (1.65%) SAP BRIM
12 17 (1.65%) SAP Payroll
13 13 (1.26%) SAP PP
13 13 (1.26%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 88 (8.55%) Azure
2 41 (3.98%) OCI
3 36 (3.50%) Dynamics 365
4 34 (3.30%) AWS
5 31 (3.01%) GCP
6 29 (2.82%) Power Platform
7 26 (2.53%) Microsoft 365
8 18 (1.75%) Entra ID
8 18 (1.75%) SAP Commerce Cloud
9 13 (1.26%) SaaS
9 13 (1.26%) SuccessFactors
10 11 (1.07%) Microsoft Copilot
11 9 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
11 9 (0.87%) PowerApps
12 8 (0.78%) OneDrive
13 7 (0.68%) Power Automate
14 5 (0.49%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 5 (0.49%) Azure AI
15 4 (0.39%) Copilot Studio
15 4 (0.39%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.55%) Firewall
2 6 (0.58%) Network Security
2 6 (0.58%) SSH
3 5 (0.49%) Kerberos
3 5 (0.49%) SD-WAN
3 5 (0.49%) WAN
4 4 (0.39%) Cisco ISE
5 3 (0.29%) BGP
5 3 (0.29%) Cisco ASA
5 3 (0.29%) Cisco Firepower
5 3 (0.29%) Cisco Nexus
5 3 (0.29%) EIGRP
5 3 (0.29%) FTP
5 3 (0.29%) OSPF
5 3 (0.29%) SAN
5 3 (0.29%) VPN
5 3 (0.29%) VSAN
5 3 (0.29%) WebEx
6 2 (0.19%) Intranet
6 2 (0.19%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (2.33%) Power BI
2 21 (2.04%) Oracle Reports
3 18 (1.75%) SAP HANA
4 14 (1.36%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 13 (1.26%) SQL Server
6 10 (0.97%) Data Warehouse
7 9 (0.87%) Metadata
8 7 (0.68%) SAP BW
9 5 (0.49%) GIS
10 4 (0.39%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.39%) SAP Data Services
10 4 (0.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.29%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.29%) PostgreSQL
11 3 (0.29%) Snowflake Schema
12 2 (0.19%) EDMS
12 2 (0.19%) MongoDB
12 2 (0.19%) MS Access
12 2 (0.19%) Oracle BI EE
12 2 (0.19%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 27 (2.62%) JIRA
2 8 (0.78%) GitLab
2 8 (0.78%) Hudson
3 6 (0.58%) Git
4 3 (0.29%) Oracle Forms
5 2 (0.19%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.19%) Tricentis qTest
6 1 (0.097%) Appium
6 1 (0.097%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.097%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.097%) JUnit
6 1 (0.097%) LSMW
6 1 (0.097%) MSTest
6 1 (0.097%) NeoLoad
6 1 (0.097%) Postman
6 1 (0.097%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (0.097%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.097%) Toad
6 1 (0.097%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.097%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 252 (24.49%) Social Skills
2 212 (20.60%) Finance
3 128 (12.44%) Public Sector
4 86 (8.36%) Analytical Skills
5 48 (4.66%) Manufacturing
6 31 (3.01%) Presentation Skills
7 30 (2.92%) Telecoms
8 29 (2.82%) Billing
9 24 (2.33%) General Ledger
10 23 (2.24%) Documentation Skills
11 17 (1.65%) Marketing
12 14 (1.36%) Legal
13 13 (1.26%) Local Government
14 10 (0.97%) Banking
14 10 (0.97%) Pharmaceutical
15 9 (0.87%) Law
15 9 (0.87%) Retail
16 7 (0.68%) Aerospace
16 7 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
17 6 (0.58%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (3.79%) Oracle Fusion
2 34 (3.30%) SAP Fiori
3 32 (3.11%) REST
4 27 (2.62%) Web Services
5 18 (1.75%) SOAP
6 17 (1.65%) XML
7 16 (1.55%) BAPI
8 13 (1.26%) LDAP
9 9 (0.87%) SAML
9 9 (0.87%) SAP Basis
10 7 (0.68%) OAuth
10 7 (0.68%) SAP TM
11 6 (0.58%) JSON
11 6 (0.58%) Middleware
11 6 (0.58%) SAP Business Workflow
12 5 (0.49%) .NET
12 5 (0.49%) OpenID
13 3 (0.29%) IDoc
13 3 (0.29%) scikit-learn
13 3 (0.29%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 36 (3.50%) Onboarding
2 22 (2.14%) Legacy Systems
3 14 (1.36%) Data Protection Act
3 14 (1.36%) Product Ownership
4 13 (1.26%) Security Posture
5 11 (1.07%) Replication
6 10 (0.97%) Data Centre
7 9 (0.87%) Management Information System
8 8 (0.78%) Data Structures
8 8 (0.78%) Public Cloud
9 7 (0.68%) SCADA
10 6 (0.58%) Beowulf
10 6 (0.58%) NHS
10 6 (0.58%) Operational Technology
11 5 (0.49%) SCORM
12 4 (0.39%) AI Agents
12 4 (0.39%) Analytical Mindset
12 4 (0.39%) Contract for Difference
12 4 (0.39%) FMCG
12 4 (0.39%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 33 (3.21%) Windows
2 19 (1.85%) Linux
3 6 (0.58%) AIX
3 6 (0.58%) Solaris
3 6 (0.58%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.49%) Unix
5 4 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (0.39%) VMS
5 4 (0.39%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.19%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
6 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
7 1 (0.097%) CentOS
7 1 (0.097%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 156 (15.16%) Migration
2 121 (11.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 109 (10.59%) Problem-Solving
4 103 (10.01%) ERP
5 101 (9.82%) Stakeholder Management
5 101 (9.82%) Workshop Facilitation
6 68 (6.61%) Roadmaps
7 67 (6.51%) User Acceptance Testing
8 61 (5.93%) Knowledge Transfer
9 60 (5.83%) Analytics
10 59 (5.73%) Data Migration
11 57 (5.54%) Validation
12 52 (5.05%) Business Intelligence
12 52 (5.05%) Cybersecurity
13 48 (4.66%) Change Management
14 47 (4.57%) Logistics
15 43 (4.18%) Agile
16 42 (4.08%) Collaborative Working
16 42 (4.08%) Process Improvement
17 40 (3.89%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 41 (3.98%) SQL
2 33 (3.21%) ABAP
3 27 (2.62%) Python
4 22 (2.14%) PowerShell
5 8 (0.78%) Bash
6 7 (0.68%) JavaScript
7 5 (0.49%) Java
7 5 (0.49%) PL/SQL
8 4 (0.39%) C#
8 4 (0.39%) TypeScript
9 3 (0.29%) Groovy
9 3 (0.29%) VBA
10 2 (0.19%) C++
10 2 (0.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 2 (0.19%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.19%) X++
11 1 (0.097%) Apex Code
11 1 (0.097%) C
11 1 (0.097%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.097%) R
Qualifications
1 322 (31.29%) Security Cleared
2 263 (25.56%) SC Cleared
3 43 (4.18%) BPSS Clearance
3 43 (4.18%) DV Cleared
4 29 (2.82%) Degree
5 18 (1.75%) CISSP
6 14 (1.36%) CISM
7 12 (1.17%) Cisco Certification
8 11 (1.07%) SAP Certification
9 8 (0.78%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (0.68%) CCNP
11 6 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (0.39%) CCIE
12 4 (0.39%) ITIL Certification
12 4 (0.39%) Master's Degree
13 3 (0.29%) ACCA
13 3 (0.29%) CCA
13 3 (0.29%) Oracle Certification
13 3 (0.29%) PMP
13 3 (0.29%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (4.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 35 (3.40%) NIST
3 25 (2.43%) GDPR
4 23 (2.24%) QA
5 19 (1.85%) Data Quality
6 17 (1.65%) GRC
7 13 (1.26%) Actionable Recommendations
8 8 (0.78%) NCSC
8 8 (0.78%) PMO
9 7 (0.68%) JSP 440
10 5 (0.49%) COBIT
10 5 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 5 (0.49%) SOC 2
11 4 (0.39%) PCI DSS
12 3 (0.29%) ISO 19650
12 3 (0.29%) NIST 800
12 3 (0.29%) RMADS
13 2 (0.19%) HIPAA
13 2 (0.19%) SLA
System Software
1 32 (3.11%) Active Directory
2 13 (1.26%) Docker
3 11 (1.07%) VMware NSX
4 10 (0.97%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.58%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 3 (0.29%) vSphere
7 1 (0.097%) Ceph
7 1 (0.097%) Firmware
7 1 (0.097%) KVM
7 1 (0.097%) NDS
7 1 (0.097%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 1 (0.097%) QEMU
7 1 (0.097%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.097%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.097%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 21 (2.04%) Kubernetes
2 14 (1.36%) Terraform
3 10 (0.97%) PingFederate
3 10 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (0.68%) Grafana
5 6 (0.58%) Ansible
5 6 (0.58%) Podman
5 6 (0.58%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.58%) SCCM
6 4 (0.39%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (0.19%) EMC NetWorker
8 2 (0.19%) EMC VPLEX
8 2 (0.19%) EnCase
8 2 (0.19%) FTK
8 2 (0.19%) NetBackup
8 2 (0.19%) vRealize
9 1 (0.097%) Cisco UCCE
9 1 (0.097%) Control-M
9 1 (0.097%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 257 (24.98%) SAP
2 126 (12.24%) Oracle
3 100 (9.72%) Microsoft
4 52 (5.05%) CyberArk
5 49 (4.76%) Cisco
6 35 (3.40%) Aruba
7 32 (3.11%) ServiceNow
8 28 (2.72%) Workday
9 22 (2.14%) Siemens
10 19 (1.85%) Google
11 18 (1.75%) VMware
12 13 (1.26%) Ariba
13 12 (1.17%) Adobe
13 12 (1.17%) OpenText
14 9 (0.87%) BMC
15 8 (0.78%) Atlassian
15 8 (0.78%) Databricks
15 8 (0.78%) Remedy
15 8 (0.78%) Sage
15 8 (0.78%) Salesforce