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 21 August 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 36 26
Rank change year-on-year +4 -10 +16
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,407 786 1,119
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.10% 5.13% 6.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.56% 5.70% 6.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 811 490 710
10th Percentile £400 £410 £419
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 43 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 £80.75 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £98.00 - £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 25,284 13,791 16,827
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.73% 90.10% 92.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,257 8,460 10,170
10th Percentile £304 £213 £221
25th Percentile £410 £361 £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% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,047 1,252 1,689
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.27 £13.93
25th Percentile £20.40 £16.50 £18.26
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +14.67%
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 21 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 21 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 21 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 0 416 £540 -1.82% 196
North of England -7 324 £550 - 168
Midlands +5 256 £500 -9.09% 87
North West -3 206 £578 +0.43% 110
South West +12 203 £553 -3.83% 129
West Midlands +13 183 £500 -13.04% 65
Scotland +33 117 £450 -5.26% 33
Yorkshire -11 97 £525 +4.53% 43
East of England -12 82 £550 - 60
East Midlands -3 66 £525 -4.55% 22
Wales -13 26 £550 +10.00% 8
North East -29 20 £750 +38.89% 16
Northern Ireland -6 2 £544 +4.57% 43
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 21 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.

1 396 (28.14%) Security Cleared
2 316 (22.46%) SAP
3 262 (18.62%) SC Cleared
4 194 (13.79%) Stakeholder Management
5 181 (12.86%) Microsoft
6 155 (11.02%) Migration
7 149 (10.59%) Oracle
8 139 (9.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 130 (9.24%) ERP
10 127 (9.03%) Cybersecurity
10 127 (9.03%) SQL
11 124 (8.81%) Continuous Improvement
11 124 (8.81%) Problem-Solving
12 123 (8.74%) Azure
13 102 (7.25%) DV Cleared
13 102 (7.25%) Validation
13 102 (7.25%) Workshop Facilitation
14 93 (6.61%) SAP S/4HANA
15 92 (6.54%) User Acceptance Testing
16 88 (6.25%) Agile
17 85 (6.04%) Roadmaps
18 80 (5.69%) AWS
19 75 (5.33%) Data Migration
20 74 (5.26%) Analytics
21 70 (4.98%) Risk Management
22 68 (4.83%) Knowledge Transfer
23 63 (4.48%) Business Intelligence
24 61 (4.34%) Requirements Gathering
24 61 (4.34%) ServiceNow
25 60 (4.26%) CISSP

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 (1.92%) Confluence
2 17 (1.21%) 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
7 2 (0.14%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.071%) SAS
8 1 (0.071%) Tomcat
Applications
1 50 (3.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (1.99%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (1.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.57%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.071%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.071%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.071%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 93 (6.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (2.27%) SAP PSCD
3 26 (1.85%) Oracle ERP
4 23 (1.63%) SAP MM
5 21 (1.49%) Oracle EBS
6 20 (1.42%) Oracle Payables
6 20 (1.42%) SAP EWM
7 17 (1.21%) Oracle Receivables
7 17 (1.21%) SAP FI
7 17 (1.21%) SAP SD
8 16 (1.14%) SAP Payroll
8 16 (1.14%) SAP QM
8 16 (1.14%) Workday HCM
9 13 (0.92%) SAP PP
10 12 (0.85%) Teamcenter
11 11 (0.78%) NetSuite
11 11 (0.78%) SAP CO
12 10 (0.71%) SAP FI/CO
13 9 (0.64%) SAP HCM
14 8 (0.57%) Oracle General Ledger
Cloud Services
1 123 (8.74%) Azure
2 80 (5.69%) AWS
3 60 (4.26%) Power Platform
3 60 (4.26%) SuccessFactors
4 56 (3.98%) Dynamics 365
5 48 (3.41%) GCP
6 46 (3.27%) OCI
7 33 (2.35%) Microsoft 365
8 28 (1.99%) Entra ID
9 23 (1.63%) Power Automate
10 15 (1.07%) SaaS
11 12 (0.85%) Azure DevOps
11 12 (0.85%) Microsoft Copilot
11 12 (0.85%) Oracle Service Cloud
12 11 (0.78%) GitHub
13 10 (0.71%) PowerApps
13 10 (0.71%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.64%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.57%) Azure Monitor
15 8 (0.57%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.20%) Network Security
2 22 (1.56%) Firewall
3 20 (1.42%) SNMP
4 12 (0.85%) BGP
5 11 (0.78%) 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 (0.28%) DHCP
10 4 (0.28%) FTP
10 4 (0.28%) 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 (2.63%) Power BI
2 30 (2.13%) Oracle Reports
3 18 (1.28%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 17 (1.21%) Oracle ODI
5 16 (1.14%) SAP BW
6 15 (1.07%) SAP HANA
7 14 (1.00%) SQL Server
8 11 (0.78%) Metadata
8 11 (0.78%) 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 (0.28%) 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 (3.48%) JIRA
2 11 (0.78%) Git
3 10 (0.71%) 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 (0.071%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.071%) GitLab
8 1 (0.071%) JMeter
8 1 (0.071%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.071%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.071%) Yeoman
General
1 325 (23.10%) Social Skills
2 264 (18.76%) Finance
3 123 (8.74%) Analytical Skills
4 111 (7.89%) Public Sector
5 53 (3.77%) Manufacturing
6 32 (2.27%) Legal
7 30 (2.13%) General Ledger
7 30 (2.13%) Presentation Skills
8 28 (1.99%) Documentation Skills
9 26 (1.85%) Banking
10 25 (1.78%) Telecoms
11 20 (1.42%) Billing
12 18 (1.28%) Retail
13 17 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
14 16 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
15 13 (0.92%) Aerospace
16 12 (0.85%) Marketing
17 10 (0.71%) Financial Institution
18 9 (0.64%) Advertising
19 8 (0.57%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (3.34%) REST
2 42 (2.99%) XML
3 31 (2.20%) Oracle Fusion
4 24 (1.71%) SOAP
5 21 (1.49%) Terraform
6 17 (1.21%) Middleware
7 13 (0.92%) SAP Fiori
7 13 (0.92%) Web Services
8 12 (0.85%) LDAP
8 12 (0.85%) SailPoint
9 9 (0.64%) SAP PI
10 7 (0.50%) IDoc
10 7 (0.50%) JSON
11 6 (0.43%) EDI
11 6 (0.43%) Microsoft Graph
11 6 (0.43%) SAP Basis
12 5 (0.36%) JDBC
12 5 (0.36%) OpenTelemetry
12 5 (0.36%) RESTful
13 4 (0.28%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 42 (2.99%) Onboarding
2 30 (2.13%) Data Protection Act
3 23 (1.63%) CMDB
3 23 (1.63%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.14%) Product Ownership
5 15 (1.07%) Operational Technology
6 14 (1.00%) Replication
7 12 (0.85%) Management Information System
8 11 (0.78%) Cloud Native
8 11 (0.78%) Data Centre
8 11 (0.78%) Data Structures
8 11 (0.78%) PKI
9 9 (0.64%) Analytical Mindset
9 9 (0.64%) FMCG
9 9 (0.64%) Hybrid Cloud
9 9 (0.64%) Learning Management System
9 9 (0.64%) Private Cloud
9 9 (0.64%) Public Cloud
10 8 (0.57%) Enterprise Software
10 8 (0.57%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 58 (4.12%) Windows
2 44 (3.13%) Linux
3 17 (1.21%) Solaris
4 14 (1.00%) AIX
5 10 (0.71%) Unix
5 10 (0.71%) Windows Server
6 8 (0.57%) VMS
7 3 (0.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.071%) Android
9 1 (0.071%) CoreOS
9 1 (0.071%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.071%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.071%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.071%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 194 (13.79%) Stakeholder Management
2 155 (11.02%) Migration
3 139 (9.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 130 (9.24%) ERP
5 127 (9.03%) Cybersecurity
6 124 (8.81%) Continuous Improvement
6 124 (8.81%) Problem-Solving
7 102 (7.25%) Validation
7 102 (7.25%) Workshop Facilitation
8 92 (6.54%) User Acceptance Testing
9 88 (6.25%) Agile
10 85 (6.04%) Roadmaps
11 75 (5.33%) Data Migration
12 74 (5.26%) Analytics
13 70 (4.98%) Risk Management
14 68 (4.83%) Knowledge Transfer
15 63 (4.48%) Business Intelligence
16 61 (4.34%) Requirements Gathering
17 59 (4.19%) Project Delivery
18 58 (4.12%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 127 (9.03%) SQL
2 59 (4.19%) Python
3 31 (2.20%) T-SQL
4 30 (2.13%) PowerShell
5 27 (1.92%) ABAP
6 24 (1.71%) PL/SQL
7 19 (1.35%) JavaScript
8 13 (0.92%) Java
8 13 (0.92%) Search Processing Language
9 12 (0.85%) Bash
10 10 (0.71%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.43%) C#
11 6 (0.43%) R
12 2 (0.14%) Groovy
12 2 (0.14%) Korn
12 2 (0.14%) Magik
12 2 (0.14%) Perl
12 2 (0.14%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.14%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 396 (28.14%) Security Cleared
2 262 (18.62%) SC Cleared
3 102 (7.25%) DV Cleared
4 60 (4.26%) CISSP
5 48 (3.41%) BPSS Clearance
6 46 (3.27%) CISM
7 34 (2.42%) Cisco Certification
8 29 (2.06%) Degree
9 28 (1.99%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 24 (1.71%) CCSP
11 13 (0.92%) ACCA
11 13 (0.92%) CIMA
12 11 (0.78%) CompTIA Security+
12 11 (0.78%) PMP
13 10 (0.71%) CEH
13 10 (0.71%) CRISC
14 9 (0.64%) OSCP
15 8 (0.57%) Azure Certification
16 7 (0.50%) DBS Check
16 7 (0.50%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (3.55%) NIST
2 47 (3.34%) GRC
3 44 (3.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 34 (2.42%) Data Quality
5 23 (1.63%) QA
6 18 (1.28%) GDPR
7 16 (1.14%) SLA
8 15 (1.07%) NCSC
9 13 (0.92%) Actionable Recommendations
9 13 (0.92%) PCI DSS
10 11 (0.78%) PMO
11 9 (0.64%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.50%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.43%) Def Stans
13 6 (0.43%) JSP 440
13 6 (0.43%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.43%) RMADS
14 5 (0.36%) COBIT
15 4 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
15 4 (0.28%) WCAG
System Software
1 43 (3.06%) Active Directory
2 25 (1.78%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.14%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.00%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.92%) vSphere
6 9 (0.64%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.28%) Docker
9 2 (0.14%) IAG
9 2 (0.14%) NFS
10 1 (0.071%) Firmware
10 1 (0.071%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.071%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 24 (1.71%) Kubernetes
2 19 (1.35%) Ansible
3 13 (0.92%) Nagios
3 13 (0.92%) ZABBIX
4 12 (0.85%) Netcool
4 12 (0.85%) Tivoli
5 11 (0.78%) OpenView
5 11 (0.78%) Tivoli Monitoring
5 11 (0.78%) vRealize
6 10 (0.71%) vCenter Server
7 7 (0.50%) Grafana
8 6 (0.43%) FortiGate
8 6 (0.43%) VxRail
9 5 (0.36%) NetBackup
10 4 (0.28%) CEMLI
10 4 (0.28%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.21%) Failover Clustering
11 3 (0.21%) Oracle Identity Manager
11 3 (0.21%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 316 (22.46%) SAP
2 181 (12.86%) Microsoft
3 149 (10.59%) Oracle
4 61 (4.34%) ServiceNow
5 34 (2.42%) VMware
6 29 (2.06%) Splunk
7 19 (1.35%) Salesforce
7 19 (1.35%) Workday
8 18 (1.28%) BMC
9 17 (1.21%) Ariba
10 16 (1.14%) Databricks
10 16 (1.14%) IBM
11 14 (1.00%) JD Edwards
12 13 (0.92%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.85%) HP
14 11 (0.78%) Google
15 9 (0.64%) CyberArk
15 9 (0.64%) Informatica
15 9 (0.64%) Veeam
16 8 (0.57%) IFS