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 11 August 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 33 34 27
Rank change year-on-year +1 -7 +15
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,377 781 1,103
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 5.03% 5.12% 6.03%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.47% 5.67% 6.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 782 485 707
10th Percentile £400 £411 £425
25th Percentile £455 £475 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £568
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -3.08% +8.10%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £746
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 20 19
10th Percentile £51.00 £29.31 £45.50
25th Percentile £56.25 £49.50 £55.00
Median hourly rate £61.13 £77.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -21.13% +25.81% -5.23%
75th Percentile £78.70 £81.25 -
90th Percentile £88.06 £81.73 £68.34
UK median hourly rate £60.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -22.58% +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 25,170 13,767 16,845
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.00% 90.26% 92.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,202 8,445 10,268
10th Percentile £305 £217 £220
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 £682
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,023 1,222 1,736
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.27 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.50 £16.37 £19.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.08 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +69.49% -44.28% +28.57%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% +2.87%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -2 412 £525 -4.55% 272
North of England -9 302 £550 +2.66% 337
Midlands +2 256 £500 -9.09% 120
South West +20 204 £550 -7.56% 165
West Midlands +15 183 £500 -9.09% 94
North West -7 179 £563 +2.27% 263
Scotland +35 108 £425 -15.00% 56
Yorkshire -13 102 £531 +11.84% 61
East of England -18 80 £551 +0.18% 67
East Midlands -6 64 £513 -6.82% 23
Wales -5 28 £550 +10.00% 15
North East -37 20 £750 +39.66% 14
Northern Ireland -2 1 £450 -13.46% 43
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 11 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.

1 363 (26.36%) Security Cleared
2 302 (21.93%) SAP
3 239 (17.36%) SC Cleared
4 171 (12.42%) Microsoft
5 170 (12.35%) Stakeholder Management
6 151 (10.97%) Migration
7 145 (10.53%) Oracle
8 134 (9.73%) ERP
9 133 (9.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 129 (9.37%) Azure
11 124 (9.01%) SQL
12 120 (8.71%) Continuous Improvement
13 119 (8.64%) Problem-Solving
14 118 (8.57%) Cybersecurity
15 99 (7.19%) Validation
16 97 (7.04%) DV Cleared
17 93 (6.75%) Workshop Facilitation
18 91 (6.61%) SAP S/4HANA
19 87 (6.32%) User Acceptance Testing
20 86 (6.25%) Agile
21 85 (6.17%) Roadmaps
22 77 (5.59%) AWS
23 76 (5.52%) Data Migration
24 71 (5.16%) Analytics
25 67 (4.87%) Risk Management
26 61 (4.43%) Business Intelligence
26 61 (4.43%) CISSP
27 60 (4.36%) Power Platform
28 58 (4.21%) Python
29 57 (4.14%) Knowledge Transfer

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 (2.03%) Confluence
2 18 (1.31%) SharePoint
3 9 (0.65%) WebSphere
4 8 (0.58%) 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%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.073%) Tomcat
Applications
1 49 (3.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 27 (1.96%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.51%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.15%) Lectora
7 1 (0.073%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.073%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.073%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 91 (6.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 32 (2.32%) SAP PSCD
3 25 (1.82%) Oracle ERP
4 22 (1.60%) Oracle EBS
5 20 (1.45%) SAP EWM
5 20 (1.45%) SAP MM
6 18 (1.31%) Oracle Payables
6 18 (1.31%) SAP FI
7 17 (1.23%) SAP Payroll
8 15 (1.09%) Oracle Receivables
8 15 (1.09%) SAP QM
9 14 (1.02%) SAP SD
9 14 (1.02%) Teamcenter
10 12 (0.87%) SAP CO
10 12 (0.87%) SAP HCM
11 11 (0.80%) NetSuite
11 11 (0.80%) SAP FI/CO
11 11 (0.80%) SAP PP
11 11 (0.80%) Workday HCM
12 8 (0.58%) SAP BRIM
Cloud Services
1 129 (9.37%) Azure
2 77 (5.59%) AWS
3 60 (4.36%) Power Platform
4 54 (3.92%) Dynamics 365
4 54 (3.92%) SuccessFactors
5 49 (3.56%) OCI
6 46 (3.34%) GCP
7 34 (2.47%) Microsoft 365
8 26 (1.89%) Entra ID
9 24 (1.74%) Power Automate
10 16 (1.16%) SaaS
11 12 (0.87%) Microsoft Copilot
11 12 (0.87%) Oracle Service Cloud
12 11 (0.80%) Azure DevOps
12 11 (0.80%) GitHub
12 11 (0.80%) PowerApps
13 10 (0.73%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 9 (0.65%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
15 8 (0.58%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.25%) Network Security
2 23 (1.67%) Firewall
3 20 (1.45%) SNMP
4 12 (0.87%) BGP
5 11 (0.80%) WAN
6 8 (0.58%) VPN
7 7 (0.51%) LAN
7 7 (0.51%) VSAN
8 6 (0.44%) DNS
8 6 (0.44%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.44%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.36%) FTP
9 5 (0.36%) HTTP
9 5 (0.36%) SAN
10 4 (0.29%) Wireless
11 3 (0.22%) DHCP
11 3 (0.22%) MPLS
11 3 (0.22%) SMS
11 3 (0.22%) TACACS
11 3 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (2.76%) Power BI
2 29 (2.11%) Oracle Reports
3 20 (1.45%) SAP HANA
4 17 (1.23%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 17 (1.23%) Oracle ODI
5 16 (1.16%) SAP BW
6 14 (1.02%) SQL Server
7 11 (0.80%) Metadata
7 11 (0.80%) Tableau
8 9 (0.65%) SAP Data Services
9 8 (0.58%) BusinessObjects
10 6 (0.44%) Relational Database
11 5 (0.36%) Data Warehouse
11 5 (0.36%) NonStop SQL
11 5 (0.36%) Oracle Database
12 4 (0.29%) Power Query
13 3 (0.22%) Amazon Athena
13 3 (0.22%) Delta Lake
13 3 (0.22%) NoSQL
13 3 (0.22%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 47 (3.41%) JIRA
2 12 (0.87%) Hudson
3 11 (0.80%) Git
4 8 (0.58%) Oracle Forms
5 7 (0.51%) Jenkins
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%) Postman
7 2 (0.15%) TestRail
7 2 (0.15%) tSQLt
7 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.073%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.073%) GitLab
8 1 (0.073%) JMeter
8 1 (0.073%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.073%) Yeoman
General
1 310 (22.51%) Social Skills
2 264 (19.17%) Finance
3 116 (8.42%) Analytical Skills
4 108 (7.84%) Public Sector
5 49 (3.56%) Manufacturing
6 36 (2.61%) Legal
7 32 (2.32%) Banking
8 31 (2.25%) Presentation Skills
9 27 (1.96%) General Ledger
10 26 (1.89%) Telecoms
11 25 (1.82%) Documentation Skills
12 19 (1.38%) Billing
13 17 (1.23%) Aerospace
13 17 (1.23%) Retail
14 15 (1.09%) Influencing Skills
14 15 (1.09%) Marketing
14 15 (1.09%) Organisational Skills
15 10 (0.73%) Financial Institution
16 9 (0.65%) Advertising
17 8 (0.58%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (3.34%) REST
2 41 (2.98%) XML
3 26 (1.89%) Oracle Fusion
4 24 (1.74%) SOAP
5 15 (1.09%) Middleware
6 12 (0.87%) SAP Fiori
7 11 (0.80%) Web Services
8 9 (0.65%) LDAP
8 9 (0.65%) SAP PI
9 7 (0.51%) IDoc
9 7 (0.51%) JSON
9 7 (0.51%) SailPoint
10 6 (0.44%) JDBC
10 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
11 5 (0.36%) OpenTelemetry
11 5 (0.36%) RESTful
11 5 (0.36%) SAP Basis
12 4 (0.29%) AngularJS
12 4 (0.29%) eBPF
12 4 (0.29%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 41 (2.98%) Onboarding
2 33 (2.40%) Data Protection Act
3 23 (1.67%) Security Posture
4 21 (1.53%) CMDB
5 17 (1.23%) Operational Technology
6 14 (1.02%) Product Ownership
6 14 (1.02%) Replication
7 11 (0.80%) AI Agents
7 11 (0.80%) Data Centre
7 11 (0.80%) Data Structures
7 11 (0.80%) Management Information System
8 10 (0.73%) Cloud Native
9 9 (0.65%) Analytical Mindset
9 9 (0.65%) FMCG
9 9 (0.65%) Private Cloud
9 9 (0.65%) Public Cloud
10 8 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
10 8 (0.58%) Hybrid Cloud
10 8 (0.58%) Legacy Systems
10 8 (0.58%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 55 (3.99%) Windows
2 43 (3.12%) Linux
3 17 (1.23%) Solaris
4 14 (1.02%) AIX
5 10 (0.73%) Unix
6 8 (0.58%) VMS
7 7 (0.51%) Windows Server
8 3 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.073%) Android
9 1 (0.073%) CoreOS
9 1 (0.073%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.073%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.073%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.073%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 170 (12.35%) Stakeholder Management
2 151 (10.97%) Migration
3 134 (9.73%) ERP
4 133 (9.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 120 (8.71%) Continuous Improvement
6 119 (8.64%) Problem-Solving
7 118 (8.57%) Cybersecurity
8 99 (7.19%) Validation
9 93 (6.75%) Workshop Facilitation
10 87 (6.32%) User Acceptance Testing
11 86 (6.25%) Agile
12 85 (6.17%) Roadmaps
13 76 (5.52%) Data Migration
14 71 (5.16%) Analytics
15 67 (4.87%) Risk Management
16 61 (4.43%) Business Intelligence
17 57 (4.14%) Knowledge Transfer
18 56 (4.07%) AI
18 56 (4.07%) Workflow
19 54 (3.92%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 124 (9.01%) SQL
2 58 (4.21%) Python
3 31 (2.25%) T-SQL
4 30 (2.18%) PowerShell
5 28 (2.03%) ABAP
6 25 (1.82%) PL/SQL
7 19 (1.38%) JavaScript
8 13 (0.94%) Bash
8 13 (0.94%) Java
8 13 (0.94%) Search Processing Language
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%) Groovy
11 2 (0.15%) Korn
11 2 (0.15%) Perl
11 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.15%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.15%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 363 (26.36%) Security Cleared
2 239 (17.36%) SC Cleared
3 97 (7.04%) DV Cleared
4 61 (4.43%) CISSP
5 47 (3.41%) BPSS Clearance
6 46 (3.34%) CISM
7 34 (2.47%) Cisco Certification
8 31 (2.25%) Degree
9 28 (2.03%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 24 (1.74%) CCSP
11 13 (0.94%) ACCA
11 13 (0.94%) CIMA
12 11 (0.80%) PMP
13 10 (0.73%) CEH
13 10 (0.73%) CompTIA Security+
14 9 (0.65%) CRISC
14 9 (0.65%) OSCP
15 8 (0.58%) Azure Certification
16 7 (0.51%) CCA
16 7 (0.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (3.56%) NIST
2 43 (3.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 41 (2.98%) GRC
4 31 (2.25%) Data Quality
5 24 (1.74%) QA
6 18 (1.31%) GDPR
7 13 (0.94%) Actionable Recommendations
7 13 (0.94%) PCI DSS
8 11 (0.80%) NCSC
8 11 (0.80%) SLA
9 8 (0.58%) Accessibility
10 7 (0.51%) PMO
10 7 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
11 6 (0.44%) JSP 440
11 6 (0.44%) NIST 800
11 6 (0.44%) RMADS
12 5 (0.36%) COBIT
13 4 (0.29%) WCAG
14 2 (0.15%) GxP
System Software
1 37 (2.69%) Active Directory
2 25 (1.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (1.16%) VMware NSX
4 14 (1.02%) VMware ESXi
5 13 (0.94%) vSphere
6 6 (0.44%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.29%) Docker
8 4 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.15%) NFS
10 1 (0.073%) Firmware
10 1 (0.073%) IAG
10 1 (0.073%) PowerHA
10 1 (0.073%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 24 (1.74%) Kubernetes
2 21 (1.53%) Terraform
3 20 (1.45%) Ansible
4 13 (0.94%) Nagios
4 13 (0.94%) ZABBIX
5 12 (0.87%) Netcool
5 12 (0.87%) Tivoli
6 11 (0.80%) OpenView
6 11 (0.80%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 11 (0.80%) vRealize
7 10 (0.73%) vCenter Server
8 7 (0.51%) Grafana
9 6 (0.44%) FortiGate
9 6 (0.44%) NetBackup
9 6 (0.44%) VxRail
10 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
10 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
10 4 (0.29%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Management
11 3 (0.22%) Oracle Identity Manager
Vendors
1 302 (21.93%) SAP
2 171 (12.42%) Microsoft
3 145 (10.53%) Oracle
4 57 (4.14%) ServiceNow
5 34 (2.47%) VMware
6 29 (2.11%) Splunk
7 20 (1.45%) Siemens
8 19 (1.38%) Salesforce
9 18 (1.31%) BMC
10 16 (1.16%) Databricks
10 16 (1.16%) IBM
11 15 (1.09%) Ariba
12 14 (1.02%) JD Edwards
12 14 (1.02%) Workday
13 13 (0.94%) SolarWinds
14 12 (0.87%) HP
15 11 (0.80%) Google
16 9 (0.65%) IFS
16 9 (0.65%) Informatica
16 9 (0.65%) Veeam