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 24 September 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 31 26
Rank change year-on-year -6 -5 +11
Contract jobs requiring a Consultant 1,372 896 1,093
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.84% 5.79% 6.18%
As % of the Job Titles category 5.31% 6.45% 6.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 820 577 653
10th Percentile £405 £413 £420
25th Percentile £459 £481 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £567
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -3.00% +8.00%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £719 £734
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - +0.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 20 17
10th Percentile £44.25 £29.31 £54.16
25th Percentile £58.97 £49.50 £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 £87.78 £79.92
UK median hourly rate £76.00 £77.50 £61.60
% change year-on-year -1.94% +25.81% -2.22%

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 25,851 13,902 16,319
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.23% 89.82% 92.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,184 8,550 9,348
10th Percentile £303 £210 £220
25th Percentile £413 £361 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £598
90th Percentile £688 £663 £676
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,379 1,291 1,371
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.50 £14.50
25th Percentile £19.78 £16.38 £19.74
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.08 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year +69.49% -42.88% +0.83%
75th Percentile £67.84 £50.88 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.70 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -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 24 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 24 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 24 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 -7 379 £540 -1.82% 426
North of England -20 328 £575 - 404
Midlands -1 228 £500 -9.09% 224
North West -13 213 £581 -6.29% 242
South West +13 200 £550 -5.58% 205
West Midlands +4 164 £500 -9.09% 175
Scotland +29 133 £450 -10.00% 139
East of England -16 104 £550 - 126
Yorkshire -13 93 £575 +21.05% 85
East Midlands -9 60 £525 -4.55% 47
Wales -10 24 £550 +22.22% 32
North East -35 21 £750 +38.89% 77
Channel Islands -5 2 £600 - 2
Northern Ireland -7 2 £544 +4.57% 100
Consultant
UK

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

For the 6 months to 24 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.

1 414 (30.17%) Security Cleared
2 323 (23.54%) SAP
3 277 (20.19%) SC Cleared
4 236 (17.20%) Stakeholder Management
5 196 (14.29%) Microsoft
6 160 (11.66%) Migration
7 152 (11.08%) Oracle
8 139 (10.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 133 (9.69%) Cybersecurity
10 125 (9.11%) Problem-Solving
11 123 (8.97%) Continuous Improvement
12 122 (8.89%) Azure
13 118 (8.60%) ERP
14 112 (8.16%) SAP S/4HANA
15 105 (7.65%) Validation
15 105 (7.65%) Workshop Facilitation
16 99 (7.22%) DV Cleared
17 97 (7.07%) User Acceptance Testing
18 88 (6.41%) Agile
19 87 (6.34%) Roadmaps
20 84 (6.12%) AWS
21 83 (6.05%) SQL
22 80 (5.83%) Analytics
23 75 (5.47%) Knowledge Transfer
24 72 (5.25%) Data Migration
25 69 (5.03%) Requirements Gathering
26 65 (4.74%) BPSS Clearance
26 65 (4.74%) Dynamics 365
27 62 (4.52%) Risk Management
28 60 (4.37%) Translating Business Requirements

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 24 (1.75%) Confluence
2 17 (1.24%) 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%) Apache
7 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.15%) Smallworld
7 2 (0.15%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.073%) Apache Superset
8 1 (0.073%) JBoss
8 1 (0.073%) OpenEdge
8 1 (0.073%) SAP Portal
8 1 (0.073%) SAS
Applications
1 27 (1.97%) Microsoft Office
2 20 (1.46%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (1.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.66%) 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 37 (2.70%) SAP PSCD
3 30 (2.19%) SAP Payroll
4 23 (1.68%) Oracle ERP
4 23 (1.68%) SAP HCM
5 20 (1.46%) SAP HR
6 19 (1.38%) Oracle Payables
6 19 (1.38%) SAP FI
7 18 (1.31%) Oracle EBS
7 18 (1.31%) Workday HCM
8 16 (1.17%) Oracle Receivables
9 15 (1.09%) SAP EWM
9 15 (1.09%) SAP QM
10 13 (0.95%) SAP BRIM
10 13 (0.95%) SAP MM
10 13 (0.95%) SAP PP
11 12 (0.87%) SAP Hybris
11 12 (0.87%) SAP SD
12 11 (0.80%) SAP FI/CO
12 11 (0.80%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 122 (8.89%) Azure
2 84 (6.12%) AWS
3 65 (4.74%) Dynamics 365
4 59 (4.30%) SuccessFactors
5 58 (4.23%) Power Platform
6 55 (4.01%) GCP
7 52 (3.79%) OCI
8 36 (2.62%) Microsoft 365
9 30 (2.19%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.68%) Power Automate
11 15 (1.09%) SaaS
12 14 (1.02%) SAP Commerce Cloud
13 13 (0.95%) Microsoft Copilot
14 12 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
15 10 (0.73%) Microsoft Purview
15 10 (0.73%) Oracle Service Cloud
15 10 (0.73%) PowerApps
16 9 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
16 9 (0.66%) GitHub
17 8 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.26%) Network Security
2 21 (1.53%) Firewall
3 15 (1.09%) 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%) FTP
8 5 (0.36%) SAN
9 4 (0.29%) DHCP
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 24 (1.75%) Oracle Reports
3 16 (1.17%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 15 (1.09%) SAP BW
5 13 (0.95%) SAP HANA
6 11 (0.80%) Metadata
6 11 (0.80%) Oracle ODI
7 10 (0.73%) SQL Server
8 9 (0.66%) BusinessObjects
9 8 (0.58%) Tableau
10 6 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.44%) Oracle Database
10 6 (0.44%) Relational 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%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 45 (3.28%) JIRA
2 16 (1.17%) Git
3 7 (0.51%) Hudson
3 7 (0.51%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.44%) Oracle Forms
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%) Gerrit
8 1 (0.073%) ScriptRunner
8 1 (0.073%) Yeoman
General
1 335 (24.42%) Social Skills
2 276 (20.12%) Finance
3 126 (9.18%) Public Sector
4 112 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
5 60 (4.37%) Manufacturing
6 33 (2.41%) Documentation Skills
7 32 (2.33%) Legal
8 31 (2.26%) Presentation Skills
9 30 (2.19%) Telecoms
10 29 (2.11%) General Ledger
11 24 (1.75%) Banking
11 24 (1.75%) Billing
12 20 (1.46%) Influencing Skills
12 20 (1.46%) Retail
13 14 (1.02%) Financial Institution
13 14 (1.02%) Marketing
14 13 (0.95%) Organisational Skills
15 12 (0.87%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.87%) Military
16 8 (0.58%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (2.92%) REST
2 35 (2.55%) Oracle Fusion
3 21 (1.53%) SOAP
3 21 (1.53%) Terraform
4 20 (1.46%) SailPoint
5 18 (1.31%) LDAP
5 18 (1.31%) Middleware
5 18 (1.31%) Web Services
6 17 (1.24%) SAP Fiori
7 15 (1.09%) XML
8 9 (0.66%) SAP PI
9 8 (0.58%) SAPUI5
10 6 (0.44%) EDI
10 6 (0.44%) IDoc
10 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
10 6 (0.44%) XSLT
11 5 (0.36%) Jakarta EE
11 5 (0.36%) JDBC
11 5 (0.36%) OpenTelemetry
11 5 (0.36%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 46 (3.35%) 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%) Data Structures
7 13 (0.95%) Enterprise Software
8 11 (0.80%) Cloud Native
8 11 (0.80%) Data Centre
8 11 (0.80%) Learning Management System
8 11 (0.80%) Management Information System
9 8 (0.58%) AI Agents
10 7 (0.51%) FMCG
10 7 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
10 7 (0.51%) Private Cloud
10 7 (0.51%) Security Operations Centre
11 6 (0.44%) Greenfield Project
11 6 (0.44%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 53 (3.86%) Windows
2 35 (2.55%) Linux
3 17 (1.24%) Solaris
4 11 (0.80%) Windows Server
5 9 (0.66%) AIX
5 9 (0.66%) Unix
6 5 (0.36%) VMS
7 4 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.073%) Android
9 1 (0.073%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.073%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.073%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 236 (17.20%) Stakeholder Management
2 160 (11.66%) Migration
3 139 (10.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 133 (9.69%) Cybersecurity
5 125 (9.11%) Problem-Solving
6 123 (8.97%) Continuous Improvement
7 118 (8.60%) ERP
8 105 (7.65%) Validation
8 105 (7.65%) Workshop Facilitation
9 97 (7.07%) User Acceptance Testing
10 88 (6.41%) Agile
11 87 (6.34%) Roadmaps
12 80 (5.83%) Analytics
13 75 (5.47%) Knowledge Transfer
14 72 (5.25%) Data Migration
15 69 (5.03%) Requirements Gathering
16 62 (4.52%) Risk Management
17 60 (4.37%) Translating Business Requirements
18 56 (4.08%) AI
18 56 (4.08%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 83 (6.05%) SQL
2 49 (3.57%) Python
3 36 (2.62%) ABAP
4 24 (1.75%) PowerShell
5 18 (1.31%) JavaScript
5 18 (1.31%) PL/SQL
6 15 (1.09%) Java
7 12 (0.87%) Bash
8 10 (0.73%) Kusto Query Language
8 10 (0.73%) Search Processing Language
9 4 (0.29%) R
9 4 (0.29%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.22%) C#
10 3 (0.22%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.15%) Groovy
11 2 (0.15%) Korn
11 2 (0.15%) Magik
11 2 (0.15%) Perl
11 2 (0.15%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.073%) XPath
Qualifications
1 414 (30.17%) Security Cleared
2 277 (20.19%) SC Cleared
3 99 (7.22%) DV Cleared
4 65 (4.74%) BPSS Clearance
5 52 (3.79%) CISSP
6 43 (3.13%) CISM
7 35 (2.55%) Cisco Certification
8 30 (2.19%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 26 (1.90%) CCSP
10 23 (1.68%) Degree
11 13 (0.95%) ACCA
11 13 (0.95%) CIMA
12 12 (0.87%) CompTIA Security+
13 10 (0.73%) PMP
14 9 (0.66%) CRISC
15 8 (0.58%) CCSK
16 7 (0.51%) CCA
16 7 (0.51%) CEH
16 7 (0.51%) OSCP
17 6 (0.44%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (3.28%) NIST
2 43 (3.13%) GRC
3 34 (2.48%) Data Quality
3 34 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 22 (1.60%) QA
5 18 (1.31%) NCSC
6 16 (1.17%) GDPR
6 16 (1.17%) SLA
7 13 (0.95%) Actionable Recommendations
8 12 (0.87%) PMO
9 9 (0.66%) Accessibility
10 7 (0.51%) NIST 800
11 6 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.44%) Def Stans
11 6 (0.44%) PCI DSS
12 5 (0.36%) COBIT
13 4 (0.29%) WCAG
14 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 3 (0.22%) GxP
14 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 (2.19%) Kubernetes
2 18 (1.31%) Ansible
3 10 (0.73%) vCenter Server
3 10 (0.73%) vRealize
4 8 (0.58%) Nagios
4 8 (0.58%) ZABBIX
5 7 (0.51%) Grafana
5 7 (0.51%) Netcool
5 7 (0.51%) Tivoli
6 6 (0.44%) FortiGate
6 6 (0.44%) OpenView
6 6 (0.44%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 6 (0.44%) VxRail
7 5 (0.36%) Microsoft Intune
7 5 (0.36%) SCCM
8 4 (0.29%) CEMLI
8 4 (0.29%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.22%) Failover Clustering
9 3 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 323 (23.54%) SAP
2 196 (14.29%) Microsoft
3 152 (11.08%) Oracle
4 59 (4.30%) ServiceNow
5 30 (2.19%) VMware
6 27 (1.97%) Workday
7 22 (1.60%) Salesforce
7 22 (1.60%) Splunk
8 15 (1.09%) Ariba
9 14 (1.02%) JD Edwards
10 13 (0.95%) BMC
10 13 (0.95%) CyberArk
10 13 (0.95%) Databricks
11 11 (0.80%) Google
12 10 (0.73%) IBM
13 8 (0.58%) Cisco
13 8 (0.58%) SolarWinds
13 8 (0.58%) Veeam
14 7 (0.51%) Epicor
14 7 (0.51%) HP