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 31 July 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 37 27
Rank change year-on-year +3 -10 +14
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,364 759 1,129
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.03% 5.03% 5.98%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.45% 5.56% 6.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 764 472 732
10th Percentile £400 £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 £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £750
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 21 18
10th Percentile £52.50 £29.51 £43.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £51.25 £55.24
Median hourly rate £57.50 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -25.81% +25.81% -4.99%
75th Percentile £77.60 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £86.00 - £68.51
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year -17.86% +13.64% -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 25,006 13,642 17,384
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.15% 90.46% 92.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,174 8,400 10,629
10th Percentile £306 £220 £217
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 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,942 1,187 1,875
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.50 £13.61
25th Percentile £21.00 £16.67 £18.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +8.72%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +68.99% -40.82% -1.16%

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 31 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 31 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 31 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 0 394 £525 -4.55% 199
North of England -6 295 £550 +2.04% 159
Midlands 0 259 £500 -9.09% 64
South West +23 214 £553 -3.83% 113
West Midlands +11 187 £500 -11.11% 45
North West -12 174 £550 - 110
Scotland +36 103 £425 -10.53% 21
Yorkshire -19 100 £538 +13.16% 40
East of England -18 82 £550 - 28
East Midlands -4 63 £500 -9.09% 19
Wales -7 29 £550 +10.00% 11
North East -40 20 £750 +39.66% 10
Northern Ireland -8 1 £450 -13.46% 20
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 31 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.

1 338 (24.78%) Security Cleared
2 300 (21.99%) SAP
3 224 (16.42%) SC Cleared
4 158 (11.58%) Microsoft
5 156 (11.44%) Stakeholder Management
6 148 (10.85%) Migration
7 143 (10.48%) ERP
8 141 (10.34%) Oracle
9 137 (10.04%) Azure
10 128 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 123 (9.02%) Problem-Solving
11 123 (9.02%) SQL
12 117 (8.58%) Continuous Improvement
13 114 (8.36%) Cybersecurity
14 98 (7.18%) Validation
15 93 (6.82%) SAP S/4HANA
16 90 (6.60%) DV Cleared
17 87 (6.38%) User Acceptance Testing
17 87 (6.38%) Workshop Facilitation
18 83 (6.09%) Roadmaps
19 82 (6.01%) Agile
20 79 (5.79%) Data Migration
21 73 (5.35%) AWS
22 65 (4.77%) Analytics
23 62 (4.55%) Risk Management
24 59 (4.33%) CISSP
25 57 (4.18%) Business Intelligence
25 57 (4.18%) Power Platform
25 57 (4.18%) Python
26 55 (4.03%) AI

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 (2.05%) Confluence
2 18 (1.32%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.66%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.59%) 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%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.22%) TIBCO ActiveMatrix
7 1 (0.073%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.073%) SAS
7 1 (0.073%) Tomcat
Applications
1 46 (3.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (1.91%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.66%) 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
7 1 (0.073%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 93 (6.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (2.42%) SAP PSCD
3 23 (1.69%) Oracle EBS
3 23 (1.69%) Oracle ERP
3 23 (1.69%) SAP MM
4 21 (1.54%) SAP EWM
5 18 (1.32%) Oracle Payables
5 18 (1.32%) SAP Payroll
6 17 (1.25%) SAP FI
6 17 (1.25%) Teamcenter
7 15 (1.10%) Oracle Receivables
7 15 (1.10%) SAP HCM
8 14 (1.03%) SAP QM
8 14 (1.03%) SAP SD
9 11 (0.81%) NetSuite
9 11 (0.81%) SAP CO
9 11 (0.81%) SAP PP
9 11 (0.81%) Workday HCM
10 10 (0.73%) SAP FI/CO
11 9 (0.66%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 137 (10.04%) Azure
2 73 (5.35%) AWS
3 57 (4.18%) Power Platform
4 53 (3.89%) Dynamics 365
5 47 (3.45%) SuccessFactors
6 46 (3.37%) OCI
7 43 (3.15%) GCP
8 33 (2.42%) Microsoft 365
9 24 (1.76%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.69%) Power Automate
11 17 (1.25%) SaaS
12 12 (0.88%) Microsoft Copilot
12 12 (0.88%) Oracle Service Cloud
12 12 (0.88%) PowerApps
13 11 (0.81%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (0.81%) GitHub
13 11 (0.81%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.59%) Azure Monitor
16 7 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 30 (2.20%) Network Security
2 24 (1.76%) Firewall
3 20 (1.47%) SNMP
4 12 (0.88%) BGP
5 10 (0.73%) WAN
6 9 (0.66%) VPN
7 7 (0.51%) LAN
8 6 (0.44%) FTP
8 6 (0.44%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.44%) VSAN
9 5 (0.37%) DNS
9 5 (0.37%) HTTP
9 5 (0.37%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (0.29%) SAN
10 4 (0.29%) 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 (2.57%) Power BI
2 28 (2.05%) Oracle Reports
3 22 (1.61%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.25%) Oracle ODI
5 15 (1.10%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 15 (1.10%) SAP BW
6 14 (1.03%) SQL Server
7 11 (0.81%) Tableau
8 10 (0.73%) Metadata
9 9 (0.66%) SAP Data Services
10 7 (0.51%) BusinessObjects
11 6 (0.44%) Oracle Database
12 5 (0.37%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.37%) NonStop SQL
12 5 (0.37%) Relational Database
13 4 (0.29%) Power Query
14 3 (0.22%) Amazon Athena
14 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
14 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
14 3 (0.22%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 47 (3.45%) JIRA
2 13 (0.95%) Hudson
3 10 (0.73%) Git
4 7 (0.51%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.51%) Oracle Forms
5 3 (0.22%) Postman
5 3 (0.22%) Toad
5 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
6 2 (0.15%) JDeveloper
6 2 (0.15%) LoadRunner
6 2 (0.15%) TestRail
6 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
7 1 (0.073%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.073%) GitLab
7 1 (0.073%) JMeter
7 1 (0.073%) ScriptRunner
7 1 (0.073%) tSQLt
7 1 (0.073%) Yeoman
General
1 303 (22.21%) Social Skills
2 250 (18.33%) Finance
3 117 (8.58%) Analytical Skills
4 107 (7.84%) Public Sector
5 48 (3.52%) Manufacturing
6 36 (2.64%) Legal
7 32 (2.35%) Banking
8 28 (2.05%) Presentation Skills
9 26 (1.91%) Telecoms
10 25 (1.83%) General Ledger
11 22 (1.61%) Documentation Skills
12 21 (1.54%) Aerospace
13 20 (1.47%) Billing
14 17 (1.25%) Retail
15 15 (1.10%) Marketing
16 14 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
16 14 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
17 9 (0.66%) Advertising
17 9 (0.66%) Financial Institution
18 8 (0.59%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (3.30%) REST
2 42 (3.08%) XML
3 26 (1.91%) Oracle Fusion
4 23 (1.69%) SOAP
5 15 (1.10%) Middleware
6 12 (0.88%) Web Services
7 11 (0.81%) SAP Fiori
8 9 (0.66%) SAP PI
9 7 (0.51%) IDoc
9 7 (0.51%) JSON
9 7 (0.51%) LDAP
10 6 (0.44%) JDBC
10 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
10 6 (0.44%) SailPoint
11 5 (0.37%) OpenTelemetry
11 5 (0.37%) RESTful
11 5 (0.37%) SAP Basis
12 4 (0.29%) .NET
12 4 (0.29%) AngularJS
12 4 (0.29%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 39 (2.86%) Onboarding
2 33 (2.42%) Data Protection Act
3 23 (1.69%) Security Posture
4 16 (1.17%) CMDB
4 16 (1.17%) Operational Technology
5 14 (1.03%) Replication
6 12 (0.88%) AI Agents
6 12 (0.88%) Product Ownership
7 11 (0.81%) Data Centre
7 11 (0.81%) Data Structures
8 10 (0.73%) Analytical Mindset
8 10 (0.73%) Cloud Native
8 10 (0.73%) Management Information System
9 9 (0.66%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (0.66%) FMCG
9 9 (0.66%) Legacy Systems
9 9 (0.66%) Private Cloud
9 9 (0.66%) Public Cloud
10 8 (0.59%) Security Operations Centre
11 7 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 52 (3.81%) Windows
2 42 (3.08%) Linux
3 17 (1.25%) Solaris
4 14 (1.03%) AIX
5 10 (0.73%) Unix
6 8 (0.59%) VMS
7 3 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.22%) Windows Server
8 1 (0.073%) Android
8 1 (0.073%) CoreOS
8 1 (0.073%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.073%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.073%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 156 (11.44%) Stakeholder Management
2 148 (10.85%) Migration
3 143 (10.48%) ERP
4 128 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 123 (9.02%) Problem-Solving
6 117 (8.58%) Continuous Improvement
7 114 (8.36%) Cybersecurity
8 98 (7.18%) Validation
9 87 (6.38%) User Acceptance Testing
9 87 (6.38%) Workshop Facilitation
10 83 (6.09%) Roadmaps
11 82 (6.01%) Agile
12 79 (5.79%) Data Migration
13 65 (4.77%) Analytics
14 62 (4.55%) Risk Management
15 57 (4.18%) Business Intelligence
16 55 (4.03%) AI
17 53 (3.89%) Workflow
18 52 (3.81%) Data Protection
19 51 (3.74%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 123 (9.02%) SQL
2 57 (4.18%) Python
3 30 (2.20%) T-SQL
4 29 (2.13%) ABAP
4 29 (2.13%) PowerShell
5 26 (1.91%) PL/SQL
6 19 (1.39%) JavaScript
7 13 (0.95%) Java
7 13 (0.95%) Search Processing Language
8 12 (0.88%) Bash
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%) Perl
11 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.15%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.15%) VBScript
12 1 (0.073%) JCL
12 1 (0.073%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 338 (24.78%) Security Cleared
2 224 (16.42%) SC Cleared
3 90 (6.60%) DV Cleared
4 59 (4.33%) CISSP
5 45 (3.30%) BPSS Clearance
5 45 (3.30%) CISM
6 33 (2.42%) Cisco Certification
7 30 (2.20%) Degree
8 27 (1.98%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 23 (1.69%) CCSP
10 11 (0.81%) ACCA
10 11 (0.81%) CIMA
10 11 (0.81%) PMP
11 10 (0.73%) CEH
12 9 (0.66%) CompTIA Security+
12 9 (0.66%) OSCP
13 8 (0.59%) Azure Certification
13 8 (0.59%) CRISC
14 7 (0.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 6 (0.44%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (3.67%) NIST
2 44 (3.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 37 (2.71%) GRC
4 30 (2.20%) Data Quality
5 23 (1.69%) QA
6 18 (1.32%) GDPR
7 13 (0.95%) NCSC
7 13 (0.95%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.88%) Actionable Recommendations
8 12 (0.88%) SLA
9 8 (0.59%) Accessibility
10 7 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.44%) COBIT
11 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
11 6 (0.44%) JSP 440
11 6 (0.44%) NIST 800
11 6 (0.44%) PMO
11 6 (0.44%) RMADS
12 4 (0.29%) WCAG
13 2 (0.15%) GxP
System Software
1 33 (2.42%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.17%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.03%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.95%) vSphere
6 5 (0.37%) 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 (0.073%) Firmware
9 1 (0.073%) IAG
9 1 (0.073%) PowerHA
9 1 (0.073%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 22 (1.61%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.54%) Terraform
3 20 (1.47%) Ansible
4 13 (0.95%) Nagios
4 13 (0.95%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.88%) Netcool
5 12 (0.88%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.81%) OpenView
6 11 (0.81%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 11 (0.81%) vRealize
7 10 (0.73%) vCenter Server
8 7 (0.51%) Grafana
9 6 (0.44%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.44%) NetBackup
10 5 (0.37%) VxRail
11 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
11 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
11 4 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Manager
12 3 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 300 (21.99%) SAP
2 158 (11.58%) Microsoft
3 141 (10.34%) Oracle
4 50 (3.67%) ServiceNow
5 34 (2.49%) Siemens
6 32 (2.35%) VMware
7 29 (2.13%) Splunk
8 17 (1.25%) BMC
9 16 (1.17%) IBM
10 15 (1.10%) Ariba
10 15 (1.10%) Databricks
10 15 (1.10%) Salesforce
11 14 (1.03%) JD Edwards
11 14 (1.03%) Workday
12 13 (0.95%) SolarWinds
13 12 (0.88%) HP
14 10 (0.73%) Google
14 10 (0.73%) IFS
15 9 (0.66%) Informatica
15 9 (0.66%) Veeam